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ConifersTrees
alex_hardy96

Coastal Douglas-Firs by Great Lakes

reificationofmyth
3 months ago

Considering the amount of searches I've done on this topic and forums on other sites queried, I must admit, this compulsion is beginning to feel like beating a dead horse. Regardless, here goes.


Has anyone seen, or suspected, a coastal DF (var. menziesii) near the Great Lakes?





I'll quickly address the bract issue. Var. glauca is easy to identify: look for highly reflexed bracts. Var. menziesii is trickier. From images I have seen on Inaturlist and other sites, it's evident that not all glauca have obviously reflexed bracts; some are straight and even--though rarely--appressed. This seems more common with var. glauca located between B.C.'s Cascades and Rocky Mountains (this owing to the fact that it intergrades with var. menziesii, which occupies the west/south west portion of this range). The problem, though, is number. Photos show only so many cones, and I've noticed that some local trees will produce cones that in a small sample size seem to have straight bracts, but when collected in a sufficient quantity will reveal a trend toward the reflexed. In summary: a certain level of bract reflexion will confirm var. glauca but no bract positioning will confirm var. menziesii.


However, when dreaming of days in Cathedral Grove, finding the 70-85cm cones shown in the attached photo--cones that match var. menziesii so well--he becomes hopeful. But owing to the cold, especially here in z5b, I remain skeptical.


Another theory of mine is that, because the Coastal Douglas-Fir zone is so small, and the range defined by B.C. forestry as the Interior Douglas-Fir Warm Wet Zone contains var. menziesii, along with other zones (Western Hemlock, etc.), whether companies in ONT have purchased coastal fir believing it to be interior or intermediate; this part of the range would also be more cold-tolerant than the direct maritime?

Featured Answer
  • reificationofmyth
    Original Author
    3 months ago

    maackia: "...where in the Great Lakes region are you?"


    I am in the Toronto area, zone 5b.



    bengz6westmd: "They have the same issue w/needlecast disease as blue spruce (maybe not quite as bad) in the humid US east, tho farther north the better it does."


    Some would say worse. Owing to needlecast issues, many tree farmers in my area have given up with the species entirely.

    Comments (6)

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