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.

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.

Pinus strobus - Eastern White Pine

Pinus strobus: Pinus is the Latin name for pine; strobus is Latin for pine cone.

Native to the north-eastern U.S. from Georgia and Iowa to Illinois and in Canada from Newfoundland to Manitoba.

Growth rate slow, becoming faster to 50-80' tall and 20-40' wide, dense, straight-branched, and conical in youth, broadening with age to a more open, picturesque form with irregularly drooping branches.


Needles are soft, bluish green, 3-5" long, 5-fascicled, twisted, with minute teeth on all sides, whorled completely around branchlets, persisting 3-4 years.


Cones are reddish brown, 3-8" long, slender, long-stalked, with light-tipped scale ends and no spines.


Bark is thin, smooth and light gray, thickening and darkening to grayish brown with rectangular scaly plates.

Betula papyrifera - Canoe Birch or Paper Birch

Betula papyrifera: Betula is Latin for birch; papyrifera from the Greek word 'papurus,' meaning 'papyrus' or 'paper' and the Latin word 'fero' meaning 'to bear, carry, bring'. Taken together, papyrifera means "paper bearing," for the tree's paper-like bark.

Native American tribes often used this tree to make canoes due to its waterproof bark. The bark can also be used to create a durable, waterproof layer in constructing sod-roofed houses.

Native to the north east United States and Canada. Branches are only slightly more upright than B. pendula. This species will naturally hybridize with almost any other native birch.
Leaves alternate, 1-3" long with doubly serrate margins. Often unequally cordate at the base. Upper surface glabrous, minutely hairy underneath. Fall color is yellow.
Pendulous male catkins 4" long in clusters of 1-3 in late winter to early spring. Female fruiting catkins (not pictured) 1" long occur at the ends of branches. Trees are monoecious.
Smooth, thin white bark with horizontal orange lenticels peels off in large papery sections. Young twigs are a shiny orange-brown. Compare to B. pendula whose bark cracks with maturity, revealing dark brown to black bark underneath.
White trunks create a striking winter silhouette.