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| ## western hemlock {#western-hemlock .Title-Header}                   |
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| *Tsuga heterophylla* (Raf.) Sarg.                                     |
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| Plant Symbol = TSHE                                                   |
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Contributed by: USDA NRCS National Plant Data Center

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# Alternative Names

West coast hemlock, pacific hemlock, coast hemlock

# Uses

*Ethnobotanic*: Western hemlock bark has high tannin content and was
used as a tanning agent, pigment and cleansing solution (Pojar &
MacKinnon 1994). Some Coast Salish people used a red dye made from
hemlock bark to color mountain goat wool and basket materials and as a
facial cosmetic and hair remover (Ibid.). The wood was heavy, durable,
and fairly easy to carve. Implements such as children's bows, spoons,
combs, roasting pits, dip-net poles, and edges were carved from hemlock
wood. The Mainland Comox threaded oolichan and herring boughs for
drying, and used for drying, and used the boughs for lining steaming
pits (Ibid.). Kwakwaka'wakw dancers wore headdresses, and head-bands of
hemlock boughs, and young women lived in hemlock-bough huts for four
days after their first menstruation (Ibid.).

Pitch obtained from crevices in the bark, has been chewed as a gum
(Ibid.). Western hemlock leaves and shoot tips were used to make an
herbal tea. The leaves and young shoots have been chewed as an emergency
food to keep one alive when lost in the woods (Ibid.).

*Medicinal*: Western hemlock was commonly employed medicinally by
several native North American Indian tribes who used it to treat a
variety of complaints (Moerman 1998). Hemlock pitch was applied for a
variety of purposes, including poultices or poultice coverings,
linaments rubbed on the chest for colds and when mixed with deer tallow
as a salve to prevent sunburn (Pojar & MacKinnon 1994). A decoction of
the pounded bark has been used in the treatment of hemorrhages,
diaphoretic, and diuretic (Moerman 1998). The powdered bark can be put
in shoes for foot odor.

*Landscaping & Wildlife*: *Tsuga heterophylla* is occasionally planted
as an ornamental tree in northern states and in Western Europe (Sargent
1961). Western hemlock stands provide cover and habitat for many
wildlife species and small mammals. It is also used for nest trees by
cavity nesting birds. This species is browsed by elk and deer. The
seedlings are eaten by snowshoe hares and rabbits.

*Agroforestry*: Western hemlock is used in forested riparian buffers to
help reduce stream bank erosion, protect aquatic environments, enhance
wildlife, and increase biodiversity.

*Economic*: It is one of the best pulpwood for paper and paperboard
products. The wood is used in house construction for external walls,
structural support and is suited for interior finish, kitchen cabinets,
flooring, and ceiling.

# Status

# Please consult the Plants Web site and your State Department of Natural Resources for this plant's current status, such as, state noxious status and wetland indicator values.

# 

# Description

*General*: Western hemlock (*Tsuga heterophylla*) is a large evergreen
tree growing from ninety to two-hundred feet high. The needles are short
stalked, flat, finely toothed, irregularly spare, and of unequal length
(five to twenty millimeters long). The seed cones are ovoid,
short-stalked, brown, with many thin papery scales, stalkless, and
hanging down at the end of the twigs. The bark is smooth when young,
reddish-brown, becoming darker, and deeply furrowed with flat-topped
scaly ridges (Farrar 1995).

*Distribution*: Western hemlock is native in northwestern California,
Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, Alaska, Idaho, and Montana (McMinn
& Maino 1963). In California, western hemlock occurs near the coast in
scattered localities from Del Norte County southward to the vicinity of
Elk Creek, Mendocino County (Ibid.). In Oregon and Washington, it
inhibits the Coast Ranges and Olympic Mountains, extending eastward to
the Cascades (Ibid.). For current distribution, please consult the PLANT
Profile page for this species on the PLANTS Web site.

# 

# Adaptation

Western hemlock occurs on a variety of soil types. This species is well
adapted to grow on humus and decaying wood, and is also found on mineral
soil (Pojar & MacKinnon 1994). This species is very shade tolerant and
thrives in full sun and regenerates well under a closed canopy. Western
hemlock grows in pure stands or mixed at lower levels with Douglas-fir,
silver and grand firs, giant arborvitae, redwood, and hardwood and at
higher elevations with noble fir, Alaska cedar, mountain hemlock,
western, white, and lodgepole pines (Preston 1989).

# Establishment

*Propagation from Seed*: Seed is best sown in a cold frame in the autumn
or late winter. Dormancy is variable with some seed lots requiring cold
stratification (Dirr & Heuser 1987). Stratification accelerates and
improves total germination and, unless seeds are known not to require
pretreatment, cold stratification at 41ºF from three weeks to three
months is recommended (Ibid.). Young seedlings should be placed in
individual pots, once they are large enough to handle, and allowed to
grow in a cold frame. During early summer the following year, out plant
seedlings to their permanent locations.

# Management

Seedling transplant well when they are 8 to 36 inches tall. However, the
best survival rate can be achieved if seedling are transplanted between
8 and 20 inches, this is usually when they are about five to eight years
old (Huxley 1992). Transplanting larger seedlings will check badly and
hardly put on any growth for several years. This slow growth predisposes
the seedling to pest, poor root development and wind throws, and related
damage. (Ibid.).

# Cultivars, Improved and Selected Materials (and area of origin)

Readily available from your local nursery. Contact your local Natural
Resources Conservation Service (formerly Soil Conservation Service)
office for more information. Look in the phone book under "United States
Government." The Natural Resources Conservation Service will be listed
under the subheading "Department of Agriculture."

# References

Britton, N.L. 1908. *North American trees*. Henry Holt & Company, New
York, New York.

Dirr, M.A. & M.W. Heuser 1987. *The reference manual of woody plant
propagation*. Varsity Press, Athens. Georgia.

Farrar, J.L. 1995. *Trees of the northern United States and Canada*.
Iowa State University Press, Ames, Iowa.

Huxley, A. 1992. *The new RAS dictionary of gardening*. MacMillan Press,
New York, New York

Lauriault, J. 1989. *Identification guide to the trees of Canada*.
Fitzhenry & Whiteside, Ontario, Canada.

MacKinnon, A., J. Pojar, & R. Coupe´ 1992. *Plants of the northern
British Columbia*. Lone Pine Publishing, Canada.

McMinn, H.E. & E. Maino 1963. *An illustrated manual of Pacific Coast
trees*. University of California Press, Berkeley, California.

Moerman, D. 1998. *Native American ethnobotany*. Timber Press, Oregon.

Pojar, J & A. MacKinnon 1994. *Plants of the Pacific Northwest coast:
Washington, Oregon, British Columbia, and Alaska*. Lone Pine Publishing,
Redmond, Washington.

Preston, R.J., Jr., 1989. *North American trees*. 4^th^ ed. Iowa State
University Press, Ames, Iowa.

Sargent, C.S. 1961. *Manual of the trees of North America*. Vol. 1.
Dover Publications, Inc., New York, New York.

Viereck, L.A. & E.L. Little, Jr. 1972. A*laska trees and shrubs*. United
States Department of Agriculture. Agriculture Handbook No. 410.
Washington, D.C.

# Prepared By

## *Lincoln M. Moore*

USDA, NRCS, National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

# Species Coordinator

## M. Kat Anderson

USDA, NRCS, National Plant Data Center, c/o Plant Sciences Dept., Davis,
California

Edited: 19jun02 jsp; 060818 jsp

For more information about this and other plants, please contact your
local NRCS field office or Conservation District, and visit the PLANTS
Web site\<[http://plants.usda.gov](http://plants.usda.gov/)\> or the
Plant Materials Program Web site
\<[http://Plant-Materials.nrcs.usda.gov](http://Plant-Materials.nrcs.usda.gov/)\>

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