Chamaecyparis nootkatensis - Alaska Yellow Cedar

Chamaecyparis nootkatensis: Chamaecyparis Chamaecyparis from the Greek chamae, "dwarf, low-growing, or growing on the ground" and kyparissos, "cypress," meaning "dwarf or ground cypress;" nootkatensis of or from the area of Nootka Sound or Nootka Island in Alaska.

Synonyms: Cupressus nootkatensis, Callitropsis nootkatensis, Xanthocyparis nootkatensis. Also known as Nootka Cypress.

Growth rate slow to 80' tall, though often dwarfed at high elevations, and a 25' spread at the base, developing an open, dense, narrowly conical form.

Weeping, flat sprays of blue-green to yellowish foliage have scale-like leaves with sharp, spreading tips.

Cones are similar to C. lawsoniana with wide, flat scales opening to expose the center, but only have four to six scales. Small reddish or brown male flowers appear as swollen bulbs at leave tips, shedding pollen in spring. Tiny green female flowers form small, 1/4" long, round, deep cones with a whitish cast, ripening in fall.

Bark is thin, brown, becoming gray with age, irregularly ad finely broken by shallow seams, with wide, flat scaly ridges, frequent diagonal crossings, peeling in narrow, flat, vertical strips.

Native to the coastal mountains from southeast Alaska to southwestern Oregon, with a few small groves in California's Siskiyou Mountains making up the southern extent of its range. Alaska Yellow Cedars generally grow on north-facing slopes from 4,500 - 6,900' elevation and most often consist of populations of scattered shrubs of this cedar. Longevity estimated to be 200-275 years on average. Canada's oldest known tree is an Alaska Yellow Cedar with 1,636 annual rings. It is said to have perished on Vancouver Island in the early 1990s.

Chamaecyparis lawsoniana - Port Orford Cedar

Chamaecyparis lawsoniana: Chamaecyparis from the Greek chamae, "dwarf, low-growing, or growing on the ground" and kyparissos, "cypress," meaning "dwarf or ground cypress;" lawsoniana named after Charles Lawson (1794-1873), since 1821 the head of Peter Lawson and Son Nursery in Edinburgh, Scotland, a nursery founded in 1770 by his father Peter Lawson. The Lawson cypress was first discovered near Port Orford in Oregon and introduced into cultivation in 1854 by collectors working for the Lawson and Son nursery who sent seeds back to Scotland.

Also known as Lawson's Cypress.

Evergreen native to coastal Oregon and the California coastal ranges. Moderate growth rate to 60' in cultivation, 200' in habitat with 30+' spread, developing a dense pyramidal or columnar shape with branching often to the ground.

Lacy, drooping, flat foliage sprays are variable blue-green with minute flattish scalelike leaves, soft to the touch with short blunt points.

Insignificant reddish or brown male flowers appear a swollen bulbs at leaf tips an dshed pollen in spring. Tiny green female flowers form berrylike, reddish brown, 3/8" long, oval cones among the foliage, maturing in fall of the first season, when the 8 wide flat scales open exposing the center portion when ripe.

Bark is thin, brown, becoming gray with age, with irregular shallow seams and flat, shallow ridges , frequent diagonal crossings, peeling in narrow, flat, vertical strips.

Resinous substance in wood is toxic to termites, making this a valuable timber tree. Originally used for uses as diverse as shipbuilding and match sticks, it is now the most valuable wood harvested in western North America, thanks to past overexploitation. Longevity estimated at 200 years in cultivation and up to 600 years in habitat.

Picea sitchensis - Sitka Spruce

Picea sitchensis: Picea rom the Latin 'pix' for 'pitch,' referring to the spruce's resin, which was used in the manufacture of pitch before the use of petrochemicals; sitchensis, named for Sitka, Alaska, where this tree grows native.

Evergreen. Native to coastal mountains from sea level to 3,000' elevation from British Columbia to northern California. Tallest of the spruces, and a valuable forest tree in the northwest. Grows in loose, acidic soils with high rainfall in temperate coastal areas. Tolerates wet soils and salt spray.

Grows to 160+' with a 40' spread, developing a tall, open, conical crown, a broad base, upswept branches, and a narrow to tapered top, more bushy and less upright near windswept coastlines.

View from below.

1"needles are stiff, bristly, bright green with bluish to grayish green new growth, with prickly ends, somewhat flattened and indistinctly 4-angled, standing straight out evenly and completely around branchlets.



Pendulous cones are light brown, oblong-elliptical, 2-4" long, with thin, toothed, somewhat undulating, papery scales, maturing in one season and falling in winter.

Open, mature cone.


Bark is thin, scaly, gray-brown on younger trees, becoming deep reddish brown with large, flat easily detached scales. Wood is highly valued for strength and is used in making violins for its resonant qualities.

Thuja plicata - Western Redcedar

Thuja plicata: Thuja from the Greek name 'thuia' or 'thyia,' a kind of juniper or other resinous tree; plicata, meaning 'pleated'.

Also known as Canoe Cedar, in reference to the canoes made from its rot-resistant wood by Native American tribes in the Pacific Northwest.

Pyramidal form with straight, tapered trunk with a buttressed trunk. Upper limbs are often horizontal; lower limbs droop to the ground, but most have upturned tips. Foliage is lighter green than that of associated conifers. Moderate growth rate up to 200' in its native habitat and 20-60' wide.


Flat, hanging, lacelike, green foliage sprays of small, decussate, scale-like leaves. Delightfully aromatic when crushed.


Sprays of foliage from shady (left) and sunny (right) parts of the same tree.


Cones are 1/2" round, reddish brown, with 6 fertile scales, maturing and releasing 2-3 seeds each in late summer o the first year.


Bark is thin, reddish brown, fibrous, with shallow furrows and long vertical ridges, peeling in long strips and taking on a grayish cast with age. Trunk base is often fluted.

Evergreen. Native to the northwestern U.S. from coastal California to Alaska east to Montana. Western redcedar grows under temperate rainforest conditions alongside Sequoia sempervirens, Picea sitchensis, Tsuga heterophylla and Pseudotsuga menziesii. Summers are relatively cool, winters are mild, rainfall is heavy and supplemented by ample fog-drip. It is sometimes found in boggy soil.

Picea engelmanii - Englemann's Spruce

Picea engelmanii: Picea from the Latin 'pix' for 'pitch,' referring to the spruce's resin, which was used in the manufacture of pitch before the use of petrochemicals; engelmanii for George Engelmann, a German-American botanist who described the flora of the North American west.

Evergreen. Native to southwestern Canada, Oregon, and extreme northern California east to the Rocky Mountains.

Growth rate moderate to fast to 60-130' tall and 20-25' wide, with a tall pyramidal form in youth with upward-arching horizontal branches, becoming round-topped with age, with drooping branches, from a rather large buttressed trunk.


Needles are dark-green to bluish-green, 1 to 1 1/18" long, occasionally with glaucous white bloom. Bluntly pointed ends are not sharp, and needles are somewhat flexible, with no visible resin ducts on the surfaces. Needles are also four-sided and can be rolled between the fingers.


Fallen needles leave small pegs where they were attached along the branch, as is common to the Picea genus.

Pendulous cones are oblong to cylindrical, sessile or short-stalked, with slighly wavy and elongated, flexible, papery scales, with irregular end margins, maturing in fall of the first season to a light brown and falling shortly thereafter.


Bark is fairly thin and reddish brown, becoming grayish and broken into large, thin, loosely attached scales.

Calocedrus decurrens - Incense Cedar

Calocedrus decurrens: Calocedrus from the Greek kallos, meaning 'beautiful' and kedros, meaning 'cedar'; decurrensis Latin meaning with the leaf margins running gradually into the stem, that is, having a wing-like or ridge-like extension beyond the actual or apparent point of attachment, like a leaf base that seems to continue down the stem.

Native to the mountains of southern Oregon, California, western Nevada and northern Baja California. Commonly associated with Pseudotsuga menziesii and Pinus ponderosa in the Sierra Nevada.

Growth rate slow to moderate to 75-90' tall (up to 160' in its natural habitat) and 10-15' wide or more, developing a tall, symmetrical pyramidal form, with a dense, narrow crown, a thick buttressed trunk at the base, and drooping lower horizontal branches arching upward at the ends on older trees.


Needles are rich glossy green, closely spaced, flattened, scalelike, with sharp points, occuring in flat sprays, fragrant when crushed, persisting about 2 years, as branchlets enlarge with the main deciduous period in late summer.


The sprays of foliage are made up of elongate, flattened scale-like leaves arranged in four rows surrounding the branchlet, giving it a jointed appearance. The leaves are aromatic when crushed.

Inconspicuous male and female flowers occur in midwinter on separate twigs of the same branch, as yellowish thickened scaly bodies at ends of branchlet.


Oblong-ovoid 1" yellowish to reddish brown seed cones mature in September of the first season in California, splitting open into 5 parts, with 2 recurving away from the flat, straight center and 2 smaller scales at 90º and a sharply pointed hook at the ends.


Bark on young trees is thin, smooth, cinnamon-red, flaking in broad, flat plates, later thickening and becoming darker brown, appearing semi-fibrous wtih deep furrows and thick vertical ridges.