Concept
Pseudotsuga menziesii var. menziesii, commonly known as Coast Douglas-fir, Pacific Douglas-fir, Oregon pine, or Douglas spruce, is an evergreen conifer native to western North America from west-central British Columbia, Canada southward to central California, United States. In Oregon and Washington its range is continuous from the Cascades crest west to the Pacific Coast Ranges and Pacific Ocean. In California, it is found in the Klamath and California Coast Ranges as far south as the Santa Lucia Mountains with a small stand as far south as the Purisima Hills, Santa Barbara County. In the Sierra Nevada it ranges as far south as the Yosemite region. It occurs from near sea level along the coast to in the California Mountains. Further inland, coast Douglas-fir is replaced by Rocky Mountain or interior Douglas-fir (P. menziesii var. glauca). Interior Douglas-fir intergrades with coast Douglas-fir in the Cascades of northern Washington and southern British Columbia. Coast Douglas-fir is the second-tallest conifer in the world (after coast redwood), and the third-tallest of all trees, (after Eucalyptus regnans). Currently, coast Douglas-fir trees or more in height and in diameter are common in old growth stands, and maximum heights of and diameters up to have been documented. The tallest living specimen is the Doerner Fir, (previously known as the Brummit fir), tall, at East Fork Brummit Creek in Coos County, Oregon, the stoutest is the Queets Fir, diameter, in the Queets River valley, Olympic National Park, Washington. The tallest specimen ever was probably the Nooksack Giant, with a height of 142 metres, but this is probably overestimated. Coast Douglas-fir commonly lives more than 500 years and occasionally more than 1,000 years. The bark on young trees is thin, smooth, gray, and contains numerous resin blisters. On mature trees, it is thick and corky. The shoots are brown to olive-green, turning gray-brown with age, smooth, though not as smooth as fir shoots, and finely pubescent with short dark hairs.
