#pseudotsuga

- Common Douglas-Fir

AKA Douglas spruce, Oregon pine, Columbian pine, Puget Sound pine, Douglas spruce, false hemlock, red fir, or red pine. Since it's not a pine,fir,or spruce, the only common name that's actually accurate is false hemlock ("Pseudo - tsuga"), since it's not a hemlock either. David Douglas was a Scottish botanist and collector who first reported the species. The binomial instead honoured Archibald Menzies, a Scottish physician and rival naturalist.

A Conifer native to the Western parts of North America, where they once exceeded 140m in height, and 1300 years of age. It's exceedingly unlikely any such giants remain, since they've all been cut down for lumber. They exceeded the theoretical limit for tree height, which is possibly explained by the fact that all the record breakers lived in the foggiest parts of the Pacific Northwest coast - not because the fog made the measurements unreliable, but because the fog maintained water supply to the highest branchs.

In NZ it's considered a weed and efforts are being made to exterminate wild plants, before 'Wilding Forests' completely alter the habitats exotic conifers are invading.