RHH's photos with the keyword: pseudotsuga

We discovered these last year and found out that they are the male cones of the Douglas Fir, Pseudotsuga menziesii. They are very short lived and soon disintegrate leaving the female cones, one of which is shown hanging down, to grow and remain on the tree. These male cones are usually a brighter red, but these were still holding water drops on a wet morning and I liked the photo for that reason. They were photographed on the Bowman Beach trail in Deception Pass State Park.

This was taken while hiking the Lake Ann trail near Mount Baker with my brother Tim on a very wet day. We were on our way back when this dead branch against the background of the other trees and moss caught our attention. The branch and some of the trees are Douglas Fir but I believe the tree in the background on the far right is Mountain Hemlock. In any case the photo catches something of what our forests are like.

When we saw these on the Douglas Firs at Pass Island we thought they were new growth, but learned later that these are the male cones. We didn't recognize them as cones because the female cones are pendant and look like cones even when they are very tiny. These did not look much like cones.

This is a rather weather-beaten Douglas Fir growing on the bluffs above Bowman Bay. I love trees like this and am always attempting to get photos of them but usually with rather limited success.

The Douglas-fir is not really a fir at all but belongs in a small class of trees that include some species from China and Japan. Its cones are readily recognizable by the three-pronged bracts and its needles by the double white lines on the bottom. It is a tree found both along the coast where it is often mixed with Madrones as well as in almost every type of inland forest. It can live from 600-1000 years and attain massive bulk, though very often the crowns have been destroyed by storms. It is one of the world's largest trees. This was a very young tree growing on the balds at Sharpe Park and was photographed while on an excursion there with my son-in-law last December.