Click on the images help you identify an eastern hemlock.
Form
Height 50 to 75 feet, with a trunk diameter of 24 to 36 inches. Trunk is straight and upright. Branches are spreading and nearly horizontal; the leading shoot on young trees is usually drooping. Twigs are slender.
Bark
Deeply divided into narrow, rounded ridges and covered with thick, flat scales. Color ranges from cinnamon-red to gray.
Leaf
Needlelike, 1/3 to 2/3 inch long; flat but blunt, scattered and borne in many rows, usually twisted into a two-rank arrangement. Needles remain on twigs for two to three years but fall rapidly if the twig dries, leaving woody, raised projections. Most buds are scaly and not resinous.
Fruit (seed)
Cones are 1/2 to 3/4 inch long, with scales almost as wide as long, borne at the ends of twigs. Cones ripen in the first autumn. Seeds are winged, slightly resinous, and about 1/16 inch long.
Range
Occurs on acidic soils with considerable organic matter. Hemlock barely reaches Minnesota, native to Carlton County just southwest of Lake Superior, with a few scattered trees in Aitkin and St. Louis counties. Very shade-tolerant.
Wood uses
Wood is light reddish-brown, soft, coarse, brittle, splintering, and not durable. Used for coarse lumber in exterior building finishes. Inner bark is used for tanning leather, and oil of hemlock is distilled from young branches.