The open plant encyclopedia
Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.
The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.
Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.
Tsuga
Also called Hemlock Spruces, Hemlocks
Hemlocks are a genus of medium to large conifers in the pine family, with eight to ten species from North America and eastern Asia, many grown as ornamental garden trees. They need cool, moist conditions and shade tolerance is one of their strengths.
Tsuga (, from Japanese 栂 (ツガ), the name of Tsuga sieboldii) is a genus of conifers in the pine family, Pinaceae. The English-language common name, "hemlock" arose from a perceived similarity in the smell of its crushed foliage to that of the unrelated plant hemlock. Unlike the latter, Tsuga species are not poisonous.
The genus comprises eight to ten species (depending on the authority), with four species occurring in North America and four to six in eastern Asia.
The species are all adapted to (and are confined to) relatively moist, cool temperate areas with high rainfall, cool summers, and little or no water stress; they are also adapted to cope with heavy to very heavy winter snowfall and tolerate ice storms better than most other trees. Hemlock trees are more tolerant of heavy shade than other conifers; they are, however, more susceptible to drought.
The wood obtained from hemlocks is important in the timber industry, especially for use as wood pulp. Many species are used in horticulture, and numerous cultivars have been selected for use in gardens. The bark is also used in tanning leather. The needles are sometimes used to make a tea and perfume.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Tsuga by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
