Class Pinopsida | Division Pinophyta Genus Tsuga Rank Species | |
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Similar Abies veitchii, Abies mariesii, Tsuga sieboldii, Abies homolepis, Picea jezoensis hondoensis | ||
Tsuga diversifolia, commonly known as the northern Japanese hemlock, or in Japanese, kometsuga (米栂), is a species of conifer native to the Japanese islands of Honshū, Kyūshū, and Shikoku. In Europe and North America, the species is sometimes employed as tree for the garden and has been in cultivation since 1861.
Description
Tsuga diversifolia is an evergreen tree that attains heights of 25 m (80 feet). The crown is narrow, dense and conical. Young shoots are short, palely pubescent and bright orange to red-brown in colour. The densely arranged needles are linear-oblong and 5 to 15 mm long and up to 2.4 mm wide. They are a dark green in colour, glossy and furrowed above with two chalk white stomatal bands below.
The bark is an orange-brown in colour, shallowly fissured and vertically peeling. The buds are a deep purple red. The dull purple, ovoid pistillate flowers are terminal on either long or short shoots. They measure about 5 mm and as they mature become pale green with the centre and margin of each scale being purple. The cones are 1.8 to 2.8 cm long, cylindric-ovoid, and nearly sessile. They are dark brown, pendulous and the scales are slightly convex and ridged.
