PlantFiles: Douglas Fir, Douglas-Fir, Oregon Pine, Red Fir, Yellow Fir, False Spruce
Pseudotsuga menziesii

Also known as "Douglas Spruce" and "Douglastree", this conifer can reach a height of about 200 ft. in the Pacific Northwestern United States but only gets to about 100-130 ft. high in Arizona. The trunk can get up to 6 ft. thick in the Pacific Northwest. The dark reddish brown bark is very thick and has deep furrows. The red-brown and thin cones have rounded scales and hang from the branches instead of stand up on the branches. They have 3" long papery bracts that have three points on them and come out from between the scales. The flat, narrow and soft needles radiate in all directions from the branch, are blue-green and about 1.125" long. This tree occures in nature at about 6500-10,000 ft. elevation but only at 5000 ft. in canyons. It grows with other spruce-firs and Ponderosa pine trees. The crown of the tree is compact and conical while the side branches droop. Technically, this tree is not a 'True' Fir. This is the Only species with the three pointed bracts on the cone. It is the largest tree in Arizona and is harvested for it's timber. The needles and seeds are consumed by the wildlife. If someone wanted to find these trees in Arizona, they would find them in the Willow Springs Lake area. This species is native to AZ, CA, CO, ID, MN, MT, NM, NV, NY, OR, PA, TX, UT, WA and WY in the USA, and in Canada it is native to AB and BC.

We purchased a live Douglas Fir as a Christmas tree 5 years ago and planted it right after Christmas that year. It has doubled it's size since then and was doing wonderfully. Unfortunately, my husband did not get the fence up around it two winters ago and the deer grazed this tree up to about 4 feet. Although some of the needles are starting to come back, we may have to remove them several feet up the trunk to help "shape" the tree once more. Those who live in deer-populated areas take note and make sure you protect young trees!

These trees are very large, and very beautiful. (Then again, I'll call any massive tree beautiful) When these trees are mature they are very tall and even though the crown does become irregular, it retains its conical shape. The young trees have narrowly conical crowns with branches that extend nearly to the ground, the typical Christmas tree shape. Even a young tree can be quite tall.

The Douglas-Fir frequently grows to more than 200 feet tall, 6 to 7 feet in trunk diameter, and more than 500 years old. Many records from the 1800s and early 1900s indicate that Douglas-Fir regularly grew over 300 feet, and even approached 400 feet. However, these large specimens were logged, leaving the diminished trees of today. The largest living specimen is 328 feet tall, located in Coos County, Oregon.

The first photograph I've included above shows a small cluster of young Douglas-Firs. I'm the small object at the base of the largest tree. Using myself for scale, the tallest tree in the photograph is roughly 107 feet tall and 4 feet wide in trunk diameter. Quite impressive for a tree only around 90 years old.

The second photograph shows me standing in front of the trunk of a massive Douglas-Fir. This tree has a trunk diameter of roughly 7 feet. It was impossible to take a photo of the entire tree, which would have been impressive, since it appeared to be around 250 feet tall. I estimate the age at around 500 years.