Douglas-fir

October 22, 2020June 14, 2023
Conifer, Flora and Fauna, Native to BC
by dhir

Last updated November 19, 2020. All photos taken by the author.

Instead of looking up at the tree to figure out if it is a Douglas-fir, look down around the ground at the base of the tree and look for cones. Not pine cones, as those only come from pine trees, but Douglas-fir cones. I was told by a friend last year that it looks like the tail and hind legs of a mouse stick out from between the seed cone scales. That’s the easiest way to figure out if you are standing under a Douglas-fir tree: look down for the characteristic cones with bracts (the “mouse tail and legs” part is the bract).

Douglas-fir cones that have dried out and opened.

Two older (grey) cones and one newer reddish-brown cone. Really old cones sometimes have lost their bracts (the “mouse tail and legs”) and are therefore more difficult to identify.

Douglas-fir cone that seems to have fallen from the tree awhile ago. It has lots of black mould and dirt but still has the identifying bracts.

Large cones on the tree still. If a cone opens up and lets the seeds fall while it is still on the tree they will travel farther away from the mother.

A Douglas-fir seed I obtained by destroying a seed cone. Look at the single thin wing and graceful shape. Looks like the head and body of a songbird.

Other cones: a largish pine cone and some small cypress or cedar cones, I’m not sure of their identification.

Side view of a the same pine cone from the photo above that has now been inside for a few months. If you collect cones that are closed and keep them in a dry place for a few days/weeks/months the scales open up widely releasing any seeds that are inside.

The other key to identifying Douglas-fir is the needles. Needles are a conifer‘s leaves. You may find Douglas-fir cones on the forest floor and then, when you look up, find three possible sources of the cones because three different species of conifer are growing close together. Look for pointy but not sharp needles that stick out all around the twig like a bottle brush. Unlike a pine tree which has needles in bunches, Douglas-fir needles each attach individually to the twig. When removed from a twig, the needle retains a tiny brownish base. The top of each needle has a groove down the centre. Underneath, the needles have two light green lines with a darker line in between. If you crush the needles they smell like a nice fresh forest.

Look how the needles stand out all around the twig like a bottle brush.

The top shiny side of the needle has a groove down the centre. The tips of the needles are pointy but not sharp.

The lower side of the needle has two light-green lines separated by a darker green line.

The underside of Douglas-fir needles. Note the stripes and the small brown needle base still attached.

A Douglas-fir twig. Note the bumps where the needles were attached all around the twig.

Another notable feature of trees is their bark. Other than western redcedar with its long strips of reddish bark, I have a hard time telling one tree species from another by bark alone. Mature Douglas-fir trees have beautiful thick greyish-brown bark with deep grooves.

Douglas-fir tree bark. This tree is mature but not old. Look at this article to see a picture of an old Douglas-fir tree in Stanley Park.

I found out through reading Nancy J. Turner’s book Plant Technology of First Peoples in British Columbia that there are actually two varieties of Douglas-fir in British Columbia. Here in the Lower Mainland we are more likely to come across the coastal variety, with larger cones and taller specimens. The Interior species has smaller cones and is generally shorter, but if you are looking at only one tree you likely won’t know if it is Interior or coastal as the trees we come across have been deliberately planted by people and come from all around the world. That was my biggest problem when I first embarked on my journey of tree identification: I tried to identify trees using native tree books when most of the trees in my neighbourhood are not native species of British Columbia and therefore are not found in the pages of those books. A book I have found very helpful is the Vancouver Tree Book by David Tracey, which includes tips to identify more than 100 trees found in Vancouver, and, by extension, urban areas around the lower mainland. Douglas-fir, however, is indeed a native species and is actually very common in our natural second- and third-growth forests. There are even large trees in yards and city parks. In forests, it is commonly found with the conifers Western redcedar and Western hemlock and the deciduous trees bigleaf maple and alder. Below the canopy, you will find many other native species such as Oregon grape, salal, sword ferns, deer fern, and many varieties of native berries such as salmonberry and huckleberry (Source: Tree Book: Learning to Recognize Trees of British Columbia find this most excellent resource free online!) Also interesting to me, I found a website listing the largest trees in British Columbia, the BC Big Tree Registry. According to this site, the current known tallest living Douglas-fir tree in BC is 74 metres tall.

One final piece of information for you that may help in your journey to identify this tree. The scientific name is Pseudotsuga menziesii (pronounced something like SOO-doh-TSOO-guh mens-ZEE-see-ih). Don’t worry too much about pronounciation, scientific names are a written rather than spoken language. Just try your best. And, if you were wondering, the common name of Douglas-fir is hyphenated because it is not a true fir tree like the grand fir or amabilis fir which are also native species in BC.

Happy tree seeking this week! Get out there and find yourself a Douglas-fir cone then look up to find the majestic tree.