Get to Know the Big Trees on the Block
In the Pacific Northwest, we love our trees. The green that makes our region iconic is thanks to the biodiversity of plants and animals that fill our forests and cities. There are two in particular that we see every day: You might call them the big trees on the block. One is tall, the other, with face-sized leaves. We are, of course, talking about the Douglas fir and big leaf maple. If you’re not familiar with trees or identifying them, these two are great ones to start with.
Bigleaf Maple | č’uɫac | Acer macrophyllum
The English and scientific name of this week’s silent tree gets straight to the point–the leaves on this tree are BIG! So big that the Coast Salish tribes have historically used them to store food. They are usually 12 inches wide but can be up to 24 inches wide, and their stalk can be 12 inches long! Like most maple leaves they have 5 lobes, meaning that they have five rounded projections extending out from their center, rounded like your ear lobes. This beautiful tree of mammoth leaves also reaches gargantuan heights, especially when exposed to a steady stream of sunlight: it can be up to 160 feet tall at its maximum height. It is the only native maple of the coastal PNW and, with the red alder, it is one of our native hardwood tree species. If its massive leaves are not enough to help you recognize it, look for their fruit, which hangs in elongated clusters, and each one looks like a pair of wings. In the spring, they give yellowish tiny flowers that droop from their twigs. When bigleaf maples are young, their bark is smooth and greenish-brown, and as they reach for the skies, it turns blackish and is deeply ridged, strong and fibrous, which is why the Coast Salish tribes use it to make rope and baskets. We love this colossal maple for its beautiful green leaves in the summer, which can double as an elegant green fan, and its intense yellow fall color that brightens our urban canopy. But we love it most because it lives in community with other local favorites: if you find a bigleaf maple, you’re also likely to find the Doug-fir, western redcedar, western hemlock, the Pacific rhododendron, and salmonberry, among other native trees and shrubs with whom it interacts, benefits from, and gives back to! Cheers to mountainous maples and supportive communities of people and plants!
Photo Credit: catkins - Walter Siegmund, leaves - Angilbas, helicopter seeds - Chris Light
Douglas Fir | sčəbidac | Pseudotsuga menziesii
Photo Credit: Walter Siegmund
Although some of us may only think of Douglas firs when the Christmas season approaches, they are with us year round, and help make Washington the evergreen state. This native conifer thrives in high elevations with moderate summers. In the right conditions, they can grow to be 300 feet tall, and are one of the tallest in the pine family. With all of the evergreens in our city, it can be hard to tell them apart. However, all you have to do is look down! Many times, Douglas firs are so tall you can’t even see their needles! So, the easiest way to identify them is from the cones that have fallen to the ground. They are small cones, about three to four inches in length and look as if there are small mice tails sticking out from underneath the scales. As the Coast Salish story goes, a long time ago there was a large fire in the forests. Many animals were running around frantically trying to escape the flames. The mice ran up the trunks of the trees to the canopy and hid in the cones of Douglas firs to escape the fire. To this day, if you examine a Douglas fir cone, you can see the tails of the mice sticking out between the scales.
Doug-firs drop their cones every year, and their needles have a lifespan of eight years. The trunk develops deep crevasses as the tree matures. It is the tree that moves the most amount of water out of any of our local native trees, which makes them a key species in our ecosystems. There are countless in Point Defiance Park and around Tacoma. Next time you spot a tall evergreen tree surrounded by fir cones, look for the little mice tails of the Douglas fir.
