Douglas-fir
One of the tallest trees on Earth, not actually a true fir, whose cones carry little three-pointed flaps a Native story calls the tails and legs of hiding mice.
Douglas-fir at a glance
Pseudotsuga menziesii DUG-lus fir; Pseudotsuga menziesii is soo-doh-TSOO-guh men-ZEE-zee-eye
- Type
- Plant · tree
- Diet
- Producer
- Size
- Among the tallest trees in the world, up to about 300 feet, taller than a 25-story building.
- Lifespan
- Often 500 years or more, and some pass 1,000 years.
- Conservation
- Not formally assessed as threatened by IUCN; abundant and widely planted
A green tree that makes its own food from sunlight in soft flat needles, growing fast and tall in the Pacific forests and living for centuries.
Is it safe to touch?
Completely safe. Look for a fallen cone on the ground and find the little three-pointed papery flaps sticking out between the scales. They are the easiest way to know you have a Douglas-fir.
Pick up a fallen cone under a big conifer in a Northwest forest and you can name the whole tree from your hand. If little papery flaps stick out between the scales, each one splitting into three sharp points, you are holding a Douglas-fir, because no other cone on the continent wears them. A Native story of the Northwest explains those flaps better than any textbook. In a forest fire long ago, the story goes, the mice ran to the cones for shelter and dove in headfirst, and if you look you can still see their tails and two back legs poking out where they froze, hiding forever.
The tree itself is a puzzle scientists took a while to solve. It looks like a fir, but it is not one. Its cones hang down instead of standing up, its needles and buds are wrong for a true fir, and in the end botanists gave it a name that means false hemlock and a group all its own. For all that confusion about what to call it, there is no confusion about its size. Douglas-fir is one of the tallest tree species on Earth, climbing past 300 feet in the best old-growth valleys, taller than almost any building near where you live.
That height and that straight, strong wood built much of the American West, going into ships and railroad ties and the frames of countless houses. But the tree is easiest to love at eye level, on the forest floor, with one cone in your palm and a fire from long ago frozen into it, the mice still halfway in.
Did you know?
- It is not a true fir at all. Its scientific name means false hemlock, and it fits so oddly among the conifers that botanists gave it its own group.
- Its cones have a papery three-pointed flap sticking out from under each scale. A Northwest Native story says they are the tail and two hind legs of tiny mice that dove into the cones to hide from a fire.
- It is one of the tallest tree species on Earth, and its strong wood built much of the West, from ships and railroads to houses.
Common questions
Is a Douglas-fir a real fir tree?
No. Despite the name, it is not a true fir. Its scientific name means false hemlock, and it is different enough from other conifers that scientists put it in a group of its own.
How do I know I'm looking at a Douglas-fir?
Check a fallen cone. Douglas-fir cones have little three-pointed papery flaps sticking out between the scales. No other tree's cones look quite like it.
What's the story about mice in the cones?
A Northwest Native story explains the three-pointed flaps as the tail and back legs of tiny mice that dove into the cones to hide from a forest fire, and stayed there. It's a way to remember the tree by its cones.