The douglas fir is everywhere - it is the state tree of oregon but is very abundant in washington as well. It is what is usually refered to as a 'christmas tree'. These trees are really tall, standing at about 130 ft. The coastal variety apparently grwos to about 300ft on maturity- that would be quite a site to see, even the 100 something feet ones seem so giant like.
The bark is brownish with deep long fissures that are a dark reddish brown.
The leaves seem to be of two distinct colors - some trees are a grayish snowny green while others are dark green. I kept thinking it had something to do with the age of the tree until i saw some that have branches that were half of one color and the other half of the other.
The underside of the leaves have two white lines and green in between and the upper side has one white line with 2 green ones on either side.
The cones are distinctive in that they have many 3 forked tails to guard the seeds. Included here are picutres of the cone in three stages - the young green ones, then reddish then brown.
2 comments:
I would love to collect these fallen pine cones on a visit to the UK. I smuggled a few back as keepsake.
so did i ! one of each type..
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