Trees of the Lolo National Forest
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FOR MORE INFORMATION: TREES OF THE Lolo National Forest Seeley Lake Ranger District Supervisors Office HC-31, Box 3200 LOLO NATIONAL FOREST Building 24, Fort Missoula Seeley Lake, MT 59868 Missoula, MT 59804 Phone: (406) 677-2233 Phone: (406) 329-3750 Hours: M-F, 7:30am - 4:30pm Hours: M-F, 7:30am - 4:00pm Superior Ranger District Missoula Ranger District 209 W. Riverside Building 24A, Fort Missoula Superior, MT 59872 Missoula, MT 59804 Phone: (406) 822-4233 Phone: (406) 329-3814 Hours: M-F, 8:00am - 4:30pm Hours: M-F, 7:30am - 4:00pm Plains/Thompson Falls Ranger Ninemile Ranger District District 20325 Remount Road P.O. Box 429 Huson, MT 59846 Plains, MT 59859 Phone: (406) 626-5201 Phone: (406) 826-3821 Hours: M-F, 7:30am - 4:30pm Hours: M-F, 7:30am - 4:30pm http://www.fs.fed.us/r1/lolo The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, gender, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, and persons with disabilities who require alternative means for communication of program information (Braille, large print, audiotape, etc.) should contact USDA’s TARGET Center at (202) 720-2600 (voice and TDD). 800 year old Ponderosa Pine To file a complaint of discrimination, write USDA, Director, Office of Civil Rights, Room 326-W, Whitten Building, 14th and Independence Ave. SW, Washington, DC 20250-9410, or call 1-202-720-5964 voice or TDD. USDA is an equal employment opportunity provider and employer.” Lolo National Forest R1-05-85 About This Guide INDEX BY GROUP This guidebook covers the most common native trees found on the Lolo National Forest. Use it as a Group Name/Species Page way to begin to identify and get to know the trees Birch around you as you hike, camp or picnic on the Paper Birch 4 forest. If you take the time to learn to identify Water Birch 4 Cedar trees, you just may find yourself slowing down a bit Western Redcedar 5 and becoming more aware of the natural world True Fir around you. When you get good at identifying Grand Fir 6 trees, there will still be plenty of other plants, birds Subalpine Fir 7 and butterflies to discover to keep you busy for a Hemlock lifetime. Mountain Hemlock 8 Western Hemlock 8 False Hemlock Douglas-Fir 9 Sources: Juniper Rocky Mountain Juniper 10 Text: Larch Northwest Trees by Steve Arno. The Mountaineers, Alpine Larch 11 Seattle, 1977. Western Larch 12 Illustrations: Pine Flora of the Pacific Northwest by C.L. Hitchcock and Lodgepole Pine 13 Arthur Cronquist, University of Washington Press, Ponderosa Pine 14 Seattle; 1973. Western White Pine 15 Field Guide to Forest Plants of northern Idaho by Whitebark Pine 16 Patricia Patterson, Kenneth E. Neiman; Jonalea R. Limber Pine 16 Tonn. Intermountain Research Station. USDA Forest Poplar Service, GTR INT-180, Ogden, UT. 1985. Aspen 17 Black Cottonwood 18 This brochure is dedicated to the memory of Spruce Phyllis N. Woodford Engelmann Spruce 19 Pattee Canyon Volunteer Host 1990 - 2001 PAPER BIRCH - Betula papyrifera WESTERN REDCEDAR WATER BIRCH - Betula occidentalis Thuja plicata Both birches are small, up to 80 feet tall, slender Large, tapering tree up to 160 feet deciduous trees with open tall, with fluted trunk and drooping crowns. Paper birch branches. Redcedar grows best in grows on moist, open, moist soils along streams. It is sunny uplands. Water tolerant of shade and lives up to birch grows mostly along 1,000 years of age. streams. Both attract woodpeckers and other cavity nesters. Paper Birch Water Birch LEAVES: The ovate deciduous leaves NEEDLES: are similar, but those of the Dark yellow-green, glossy and paper birch have a pointy tip. scaly with branches forming flat sprays. It has a very strong aroma. FLOWERS: Both birches bear cylindrical catkins. CONES: Tiny, 1/2” oval cones. Cones sit erect and point backward on twigs. BARK: Paper birch: Light reddish bark when young, aging to creamy BARK: white to coppery. Bark peels Gray, stringy, bark tearing off in away in thin papery strips. long strips on mature trees. Water birch: Its reddish-brown bark does not peel. Paper Birch Water Birch GRAND FIR SUBALPINE FIR Abies grandis Abies lasiocarpa A large tree, grows up to 160 feet A distinctive tree that grows to about tall, with neatly symmetrical, 140 feet tall, with a spire-like crown densely packed branches. It has and branches that often extend to thin bark, which makes it easily the ground. Commonly found with killed by fire. spruce, subalpine fir grows in high- elevation country where it’s cold and snowy. Also thin barked and easily killed by fire. NEEDLES: NEEDLES: Flat, dark green needles, 1 to 2 Thick needles, 1 to 2 inches inches long; tip rounded and long, with blunt and often notched. notched tips. CONES: CONES: Cylindrical, 2- to 4-inch cones Purplish-gray, 2- to 4-inch, borne upright and high in the cylindrical cone borne upright tree crown. on branches high in the top of the crown. Cones disintegrate on the tree. BARK: Smooth and grayish bark with resin BARK: blisters when young, aging to ashy Thin, gray and smooth with brown with thick, deep furrows. resin blisters. Inner bark purplish. MOUNTAIN HEMLOCK DOUGLAS FIR Ts u g a m e r t e n s i a n a Pseudotsuga menziesii A subalpine tree that grows up to 140 feet tall. It has a pyramid-shaped crown Tree grows up to 160 feet tall and has with slender, drooping branches and a compact, pyramid-shaped crown with slightly drooping top. It occupies the wet, upward spreading branches. Douglas snowy ranges, where soils seldom freeze. fir is highly valued as lumber because Western Hemlock, Tsuga heterophylla, is the wood is hard, stiff and durable. similar to the mountain hemlock, but grows on wet, low elevation sites on the Plains/Thompson Falls District. NEEDLES: NEEDLES: Deep bluish-green, 1-inch-long Small, 1-inch-long, flattened needles that extend out on all with slight groove down the sides of twig. center on the top of the pointed needle. CONES: Cylindrical cones, 2 to 3 CONES: inches long, with thin scales, Downward hanging, reddish- purple turning brown when brown, 2- to 4-inch long mature. cones with three-lobed bracts protruding from thin scales. BARK: BARK: Dark red-brown bark with Rough, very thick grayish bark with cracked and grooved into narrow light-colored corky furrows streaked ridges. with reddish brown. ROCKY MOUNTAIN JUNIPER ALPINE LARCH Juniperus scopulorum Larix lyallii A tree of the timberline, this conifer A short, shrubby tree with a wide, loses its needles each fall. It grows up irregularly shaped crown and to 90 feet tall and has long spreading twisted trunk. Abundant on dry, limbs and a broad gnarled crown. rocky sites, often forming a Alpine larch grows above 6,000 feet in “woodland” on sites too dry for elevation in cold and snowy areas with other forest trees to survive. rocky soils. On Carlton Ridge, Missoula Ranger District, it hybridizes with western larch. NEEDLES: Young trees are covered with NEEDLES: prickly, ½-inch, awl-like leaves. Deciduous needles, light green Mature trees have tiny scale-like in summer and golden-yellow leaves arranged opposite each in autumn before needle shed. other in pairs on the twig. Branches covered with short spur, which hold clusters or CONES: 30-40, 1- to 2-inch rigid Junipers produce “berry-like needles. cones.” The small bluish berries, with a whitish waxy coating, CONES: attract foraging birds that eat the Small, 1- to 2-inch cones with fruit, thereby dispersing the seeds, bracts much longer than cone which pass through their digestive scales. system. BARK: BARK: Thin, smooth and ashy gray bark The thin, reddish or gray bark shreds off in turns brown, deeply furrowed strips. The wood smells like cedar. with age. WESTERN LARCH LODGEPOLE PINE Larix occidentalis Pinus contorta Sun-loving tree, up to 170 feet tall, with short, open crown on long, A slim pine, up to 130 feet tall, with clear trunk. Often grows with a short crown. An adaptable tree other tree species, but will form that can grow on poor soils. It pure stands after severe fire. Larch often grows in dense thickets, called shares some of the same fire de- dog-hair stands. fenses as ponderosa pine--thick, scaly bark and branches high off the ground. Long-lived larch trees around Seeley Lake date back 1,000 years. NEEDLES: NEEDLES: Tiny, soft green needles that Stiff, often twisted, yellowish-green, turn golden yellow in the fall 2-inch-long needles grow in before shedding. Clustered bundles of 2. in bunches of 15-30 and borne on short spurs. CONES: Cone, 1-inch-long, attached CONES: directly onto the branch. Cones Small, 1-inch-long, oblong with sharp tips on scales and cones cone with red-brown scales can persist on branches for decades, borne on a short spur. and smany cones (serotinous) rarely open unless exposed to fire. BARK: BARK: Thin and scaly when young, Thin, black, rectangular plated becoming thick and deeply furrowed bark. with large plates with age. PONDEROSA PINE WESTERN WHITE PINE Pinus ponderosa Pinus monticola Montana’s state tree, the straight and large-crowned ponderosa pine can grow A large tree that grows up to 170 feet tall more than 200 feet tall. Pure stands with a long, clear trunk and slender abundant at low elevations, mixes with crown. It has a wide distribution, but Douglas fir at higher elevations.