Plant Family: Pinaceae
Growth Form: Medium-sized to large tree, up to 25 meters tall, with delicate, lacy foliage.
Leaves: The short, blunt needles are less than 2 cm long, green above, with two silver-white bands beneath; they are held in a flattened two-ranked arrangement along the twigs.
Bark: Gray to dark reddish brown, deeply furrowed with rounded ridges.
Cones: Very small, only about 2 cm long, seen hanging from the twig tips.
Habitat: Cool moist ravines, shady slopes, mature forests, often in pure stands.
Range: Common throughout New England, east to the Maritimes, west to the Great Lakes, and south in the mountains to northern Georgia and Alabama.
Key Features: The short needles that are silvery white beneath and the short, pendant cones will identify this attractive forest tree.
Comments: Wood Warblers favor this species for nesting and White-tailed Deer rely on the twigs for winter browse when hardwood sprouts are unavailable. The Wooly Adelgid (Adelges tsugae) is a tiny aphid-like insect, accidentally introduced from Asia, which feeds on the sap of hemlocks, gradually weakening and often killing the trees. Look for cottony tufts of egg sacs on the underside of the twigs. Biological control using insect predators from the home range of the Adelgids shows promise in reducing their numbers. Eastern Hemlock is the state tree of Pennsylvania.
