Bigcone Douglas Fir

Pseudotsuga macrocarpa , a tree of scattered occurrence and of no concern for timber, is valuable for esthetics and watershed protection. The northernmost stands of the species, in Kern County, are about 35 kilometers east of the closest approach of P . menziesii .

Trees to 44m; trunk to 2.3m diam.; crown broadly conic. Twigs slender, glabrous or pubescent. Leaves (20--)25--45 × 1--1.5mm, bluish green, apex mucronulate. Pollen cones pale yellow. Seed cones 9--20 × 4--7cm. Seeds 9--12mm. 2 n =24.

Trees to 25 m tall; trunk to 1.3 m d.b.h.; bark reddish brown, aging dark blackish gray, scaly, longitudinally fissured; branchlets pendulous, reddish brown or pale brown, aging gray-brown, slender, flexible, slightly pubescent; winter buds reddish brown, ovoid-conical or fusiform-conical, acute. Leaves 2.5-4 cm × ca. 2 mm, stomatal bands 2, abaxial, grayish white, base strongly twisted, apex acute. Seed cones greenish yellow when immature, ripening to dull brown, ovoid-cylindric, 9-13(-18) × 4-6 cm. Seed scales at middle of cones broadly cuneate-flabellate, thick, transversely convex, 2-2.5 × 3-3.5 cm, often resinous, puberulent when young, soon glabrous, faintly striate abaxially. Bracts exserted, not reflexed, lingulate, cusp longer than lateral lobes. Seeds brown, ovoid-conical, 1-1.2 cm × ca. 6 mm; wing pale brown, obovate, 1-1.4 cm.

Slopes, cliffs, and canyons, in chaparral and mixed coniferous forests; 200--2400m; Calif.

Cultivated. Jiangxi (Lu Shan) [native to W United States]

Abies macrocarpa Vasey, Gard. Monthly & Hort. 18: 21. 1876 (Jan.); Pseudotsuga californica Flous; P. douglasii (Lindley) Carrière var. macrocarpa (Vasey) Engelmann

Abies macrocarpa Vasey, Gard. Monthly & Hort. 18: 21. 1876.