 | Tsuga mertensiana subsp. grandicona Farjon 1988Common NamesIn common usage it is not distinguished from the type. A reasonable vernacular name would be Sierra hemlock or California hemlock.Taxonomic notesSyn: Abies hookeriana A. Murray, Picea (Tsuga) hookeriana (A. Murray) Bertrand; Pinus hookeriana (A. Murray) McNab; Tsuga hookeriana (A. Murray) Carrière; T. pattoniana var. hookeriana (A. Murray) Lemmon; × Tsuga-Picea hookeriana (A. Murray) M. Van Campo-Duplan and Gaussen; T. roezlii Carrière; T. crassifolia Flous.DescriptionTrees to 40 m tall and 150 cm dbh; crown conic. Bark charcoal gray to reddish brown, scaly and deeply fissured. Twigs yellow-brown, densely pubescent. Buds oblong, 3-4 mm. Needles 10-25(30) mm, tending to point more forward along shoot than in subsp. mertensiana, thickened centrally along midline, somewhat rounded or 4-angled in cross section, both surfaces strongly glaucous, with conspicuous stomatal bands; margins entire. Seed cones green or violet ripening yellow-brown, oblong-cylindric, (3.5)4-6.5 × 2.5-3.5 cm (open); scales pubescent, broadly fan-shaped, 11-l5 × 11-15 mm, apex rounded. Differs from subsp. mertensiana mainly in the larger (particularly broader) cones, with larger scales; the cones are also less often purple before maturity.RangeUSA: California, and just into southernmost Oregon and westernmost Nevada, in the Sierra Nevada and southern Siskiyou ranges at 1800-3350 m elevation. Habitat moist mountain forests, mostly in sheltered north-facing sites close to alpine timberline (1, 2, 4). USDA hardiness zone 6.Big TreeHeight 34 m, dbh 224 cm, crown spread 13 m, in Alpine County, CA (3); also height 45 m, dbh 183 cm, at head of Crystal Creek, Kings Canyon Nat. Pk., CA (4; a pre-1971 measurement, so may be dead).OldestDendrochronologyEthnobotanyIt is adaptable to a wide variety of climatic conditions and is widely used as an ornamental (6), but it is slow to start and difficult to establish.ObservationsRemarksCitations(1) A. Farjon 1988. Taxonomic notes on Pinaceae 1. Proc. Konin. Ned. Akad. Wetensch. ser. C Bot., 91: 31-42.(2) Farjon 1990. (3) American Forests 1996. (4) D.J. Parsons 1971. The southern extensions of Tsuga mertensiana (mountain hemlock) in the Sierra Nevada. Madroño 21: 536-539. This page edited with the help of M.P. Frankis, Feb-1999. |
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