Carolina Hemlock

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Carolina Hemlock

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Pinophyta
Class:	Pinopsida
Order:	Pinales
Family:	Pinaceae
Genus:	Tsuga
Species:	T. caroliniana

Binomial name

Tsuga caroliniana
Engelmann

Carolina Hemlock (Tsuga caroliniana) is a coniferous tree. Its range is limited to southwest Virginia, western North Carolina, extreme northeast Georgia, northwest South Carolina, and eastern Tennessee. The tree's native habitat is rocky mountain slopes at elevations of 700-1200 m. The optimal growing condition is a partly shady area with moist but well-drained soil in a cool climate. Carolina Hemlock is used more often as an ornamental tree than lumber due to its overall rarity.

Carolina Hemlock grows up to 30 m (exceptionally 34 m) tall and 110 cm in trunk diameter under forest conditions. The crown is compact and pyramidal, growing up to 8 m wide. The branches are stout and usually horizontal, but often slightly drooping. The shoots are finely hairy. The thick bark is reddish-brown and becomes fissured between scaly ridges. The leaves are 10-20 mm long and flattened, not tapering toward their ends; they radiate outward in all directions from the twigs and smell of tangerine if crushed. They are glossy dark green above and paler on the underside with two white stomatal bands. The cones are 2.5-4 cm long and light brown. When fully open, their scales are positioned at a right angle to the central axis, with tips slightly reflexed.

The Hemlock Woolly Adelgid Adelges tsugae, an adelgid introduced to the United States from Asia in 1924, threatens Carolina Hemlock, which is as susceptible as the related Eastern Hemlock.