Pseudotsuga
Pseudotsuga | |
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Pseudotsuga menziesii var. menziesii in Anacortes Community Forest Lands, Washington | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Gymnospermae |
Division: | Pinophyta |
Class: | Pinopsida |
Order: | Pinales |
Family: | Pinaceae |
Subfamily: | Laricoideae |
Genus: | Pseudotsuga Carrière
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Type species | |
Carrière
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Species | |
See text | |
Synonyms | |
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Pseudotsuga
Nineteenth-century botanists had problems in classifying Douglas firs, due to the species' similarity to various other conifers better known at the time; they have at times been classified in
Name
The tree takes its English name from
Description
Douglas-firs are medium-size to extremely large evergreen trees, 20–120 metres (70–390 ft) tall (although only coast Douglas-firs reach such great height).[6] The leaves are flat, soft, linear, 2–4 centimetres (0.8–1.6 in) long, generally resembling those of the firs, occurring singly rather than in fascicles; they completely encircle the branches, which can be useful in recognizing the species. The female cones are pendulous, with persistent scales (unlike true firs), and are distinctive in having a long tridentine (three-pointed) bract that protrudes prominently above each scale (it resembles the back half of a mouse, with two feet and a tail).
Pseudotsuga menziesii var. menziesii has attained heights of 393 feet (120* m). That was the estimated height of the tallest conifer ever well-documented, the Mineral Tree (Mineral, Washington), measured in 1924 by Dr. Richard E. McArdle,[7] former chief of the U.S. Forest Service.[8] The volume of that tree was 515 cubic metres (18,190 cu ft). The tallest living individual is the Brummitt (Doerner) Fir in Coos County, Oregon, 99.4 metres (326 ft) tall.[9] Only coast redwood[10] and Eucalyptus regnans reach greater heights based on current knowledge of living trees: 379 and 331 feet (116 and 101* m), respectively. At Quinault, Washington, is found a collection of the largest Douglas-firs in one area. Quinault Rain Forest hosts the most of the top ten known largest Douglas-firs.
As of 2009[update], the largest known Douglas-firs in the world are, by volume:[11]
- Red Creek Tree (Red Creek, SW British Columbia) 12,320 cubic feet (349 m3)
- Queets Fir (Queets River Valley-Olympic National Park) 11,710 cubic feet (332 m3)
- Tichipawa (Quinault Lake Rain Forest-Olympic National Park) 10,870 cubic feet (308 m3)
- Rex (Quinault Lake Rain Forest-Olympic National Park) 10,200 cubic feet (290 m3)
- Ol' Jed (Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park) 10,040 cubic feet (284 m3)
Species and varieties
Phylogeny of Pseudotsuga[12][13] | |||||||||||||||||||||
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By far the best-known is the very widespread and abundant
All of the other species are of restricted range and little-known outside of their respective native environments, where they are often rare and of scattered occurrence in mixed forests; all those have unfavorable conservation status. The taxonomy of the Asian Douglas-firs continues to be disputed,[22] but the most recent taxonomic treatment accepts four species: three Chinese and one Japanese.[2][3] The three Chinese species have been variously considered varieties of P. sinensis[23] or broken down into additional species and varieties.[24] In the current treatment, the Chinese species P. sinensis is further subdivided into two varieties: var. sinensis and var. wilsoniana.
North America
- Pseudotsuga macrocarpa (Vasey) Mayr bigcone Douglas-fir – southern California
- Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco – western North America from Alaska to Oaxaca
- Pseudotsuga menziesii var. menziesii coast Douglas-fir
- Pseudotsuga menziesii var. glauca (Beissn.) Franco Rocky Mountain Douglas-fir
- Pseudotsuga menziesii var. lindleyana (Roezl) Carrière Mexican Douglas-fir
Asia
- Pseudotsuga brevifolia W.C.Cheng & L.K.Fu short-leaf Chinese Douglas-fir
- Pseudotsuga forrestii Craib Yunnan Douglas-fir
- Pseudotsuga japonica (Shiras.) Beissn. Japanese Douglas-fir
- Pseudotsuga sinensis Dode Chinese Douglas-fir
- Pseudotsuga sinensis var. sinensis
- Pseudotsuga sinensis var. wilsoniana Taiwan Douglas-fir
- Pseudotsuga sinensis var. gaussenii [23]
Formerly placed in Pseudotsuga
- Keteleeria davidiana (Bertrand) Beissn. (as P. davidiana Bertrand)[24]
- Cathaya argyrophylla(as P. argyrophylla)
- Keteleeria fortunei (as P. fortunei)
- Abies magnifica (as P. magnifica)
- Abies procera (as P. nobilis)
Uses
Douglas-fir
Douglas-fir is one of the most commonly marketed
Pests and diseases
Douglas-firs are used as food plants by the
Culture
A California Native American myth explains that each three-ended bract is the tail and two tiny legs of a mouse that hid inside the scales of the tree's cones during forest fires, and the tree was kind enough to be its enduring sanctuary.
A Douglas-fir species,
References
- ^ Sunset Western Garden Book, 1995:606–607
- ^ a b "Flora of China: Pseudotsuga". Retrieved 17 January 2012.
- ^ a b "The Gymnosperm Database: Pseudotsuga". Retrieved 17 January 2012.
- ^ Trust Walks: "Dunkeld and The Hermitage Archived 12 November 2012 at the Wayback Machine," a podcast by the National Trust for Scotland; 27 June 2009
- ^ Little, E. L. (1953). Check List of native and naturalized trees of the United States (including Alaska). Washington D.C.: U.S. Department of Agriculture. USDA Agricultural Handbook 41.
- ^ Carder, Al (1995). Forest Giants of the World Past and Present. pp. 3–4.
- ^ Forest Giants of the World Past and Present by Al Carder 1995, pp. 3–4.
- ^ "Richard McArdle Bio, USFS History, Forest History Society". Foresthistory.org. Archived from the original on 4 December 2010. Retrieved 9 March 2011.
- ^ Gymnosperm Database: Pseudotsuga menziesii var. menziesii (2006)
- ^ "Sequoia sempervirens". The Gymnosperm Database. Retrieved 1 February 2009.
- ISBN 0-295-98140-7.
- S2CID 232282918.
- )
- doi:10.1139/x89-022.
- ^ Little, E.L. (1952). "The genus Pseudotsuga (Douglas-fir) in North America". Leafl. Western Botany. 6: 181–198.
- ^ Flous, F. (1934). "Deux espèces nouvelles de Pseudotsuga Américains". Bulletin de la Société d'histoire naturelle de Toulouse. 66: 211–224.
- ^ Flous, F. (1934). "Diagnoses d'espèces et variétés nouvelles de Pseudotsuga Américains". Bulletin de la Société d'histoire naturelle de Toulouse. 66: 329–346.
- ^ Martínez, M. (1949). "Las Pseudotsugas de México". Anales del Instituto de Biología. 20: 129–184.
- ^ Earle, C.J. "The Gymnosperm Database: Pseudotsuga lindleyana". Archived from the original on 18 January 2012. Retrieved 12 January 2012.
- ^ Reyes-Hernández, VJ; Vargas-Hernández JJ; López-Upton J; Vaquera-Huerta H (2006). "Phenotypic similarity among Mexican populations of Pseudotsuga Carr" (PDF). Agrociencia. 40 (4): 545–556.
- PMID 21118265.
- PMID 10330075.
- ^ a b Farjon, A. (1990). Pinaceae: drawings and descriptions of the genera Abies, Cedrus, Pseudolarix, Keteleeria, Nothotsuga, Tsuga, Cathaya, Pseudotsuga, Larix and Picea. Königstein: Koeltz Scientific Books.
- ^ a b "GRIN Species Records of Pseudotsuga". Germplasm Resources Information Network. United States Department of Agriculture. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 2 December 2010.
- ^ "National Christmas Tree Association". Christmastree.org. Archived from the original on 5 December 2005. Retrieved 9 March 2011.