Western hemlock
Introduced · Up to 50 m

Western hemlock

Tsuga heterophylla · Pinaceae

Western hemlock is a narrow, spire-shaped conifer whose top shoot bends right over and hangs. Its flat needles come in two lengths on the same shoot.

Often mistaken for Douglas fir. How to tell them apart →
Know it byNeedlesEvery needle rounded at the tip.ShapeA narrow, dense spire, every branch tip drooping.ShootsSlender and coffee brown, smooth where needles dropped.

Then check · ConesSmall and oval, up to 25 mm, drooping from the shoot tips. They ripen from green to greyish brown and have thin, blunt scales.

How to identify a western hemlock

Western hemlock: needles
Needles

Short ones lie along the top of the shoot and longer ones out to the sides, all rounded at the tip.

Shape

A narrow, dense spire whose top shoot bends right over and hangs. Every branch tip droops.

Western hemlock: shoots
Shoots

Slender and coffee brown, with long, fluffy hairs. Where the needles have dropped, the shoot is smooth to the finger.

Learn the western hemlock in TreelyEvery part through the year, and a short round each day until you know it.Get Treely

Every part, in photographs

Western hemlock shoots and needles: two needle lengths, blunt tips, white beneath
Shoots and needlesTwo needle lengths, blunt tips, white beneath
Western hemlock cones: small drooping cones, green then greyish brown
ConesSmall drooping cones, green then greyish brown
Western hemlock bark: dark brown, furrowed into rugged scaly ridgeshumon, CC BY 4.0
BarkDark brown, furrowed into rugged scaly ridges

When to look

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In leaf
Flowers
Cones

In leaf: all year · Flowers: March to May · Cones: June to November

Every tree on the calendar

Where you’ll find it

Planted in wet upland forests in the north and west, best where over 1000 mm of rain falls a year, on any soil except chalk. Its seedlings come up in deep shade under other conifers and wait for a gap overhead.

What it’s mistaken for

Western hemlock: along a shootDouglas fir: along a shootWestern hemlock or Douglas fir?Both are big timber conifers of the Pacific north-west, planted here on the same wet ground.Along a shoot
  • Sitka spruceBoth fill the wet upland plantations of the north and west. Leaf. Western hemlock: rounded and blunt. Sitka spruce: painfully sharp, on a woody peg.
  • Grand firBoth have flat needles in two rows, dark green above with pale bands beneath. Leaf. Western hemlock: rounded and blunt. Grand fir: notched at the end.
  • YewBoth are dark evergreens whose flat needles lie in two rows either side of the shoot. Leaf. Western hemlock: two white bands under each needle. Yew: dull yellowish green, with no white stripes.

More pines, firs, spruces, larches and cedars

Atlas cedarCedrus atlanticaCedar of LebanonCedrus libaniCorsican pinePinus nigra subsp. laricioDouglas firPseudotsuga menziesiiEuropean larchLarix deciduaGrand firAbies grandisJapanese larchLarix kaempferiNoble firAbies procera
In the app

There’s more of the western hemlock in Treely

  • Every part, through the yearLeaves, bark, buds, flowers and fruit, photographed in every season
  • Its lookalikes, side by sideThe checks that settle it, part by part
  • A short round each dayUntil you know the western hemlock on sight, from any side
  • Name it from a photoA leaf, the bark or a flower, and Treely tells you which tree
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Every fact on this page is checked against the Collins Tree Guide, last in November 2026. Spotted something that looks wrong in front of a real tree? Tell us. How we check.

Photographs: bradenjudson (CC0), rambryum (CC0), humon (CC BY 4.0), jamie-aa (CC BY 4.0). With thanks to everyone who shares their photographs on iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons.