United States / Grow / mountain hemlock

mountain hemlock

Tsuga mertensiana · Pinaceae · all Tsuga records · also called Hemlock, mountain · Wikipedia

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Form
tree
Mature height
~125 ft
Water need
high
Rated in
Global; Lake Tahoe Basin, Nevada and California
On this lot

1. Fire evidence and conditions

Fire evidence
Mixed evidence — location does not change the cited classification.
Placement evidence
1 source placement record; source schemes remain separate.
Evidence regions
Global; Lake Tahoe Basin, Nevada and California
Typed publication scope: 1 scope across 1 cited fire source

2. Why this plant is relevant here

State distribution
Documented in AK, CA, ID, MT, NV, OR, WA.
Native range
Current cited native range in AK, CA, ID, MT, NV, OR, WA.
USDA hardiness
Documented minimum 5a; no upper limit is documented.

3. Legal, ecological, and broader status

How to read this page

The status above is computed from the cited rows below: independent recommendations can support a fire-resistant result, an avoid row can produce keep-away, and disagreement stays visible as conflict. Placement notes preserve each source’s own scheme rather than translating unlike rules into one scale. This is evidence about a plant, not permission to plant it in every part of the defensible space; Zone 0 remains noncombustible.

Native and introduced range evidence

These are exact U.S. botanical-area records from the cited range source. Native and introduced describe biogeographic relationship, not fire performance or planting approval. Doubtful and extinct rows stay visible but do not count as current presence.

Current native

7

exact source areas

Current introduced

0

exact source areas

Qualified

0

doubtful or extinct source rows

7 native source areas · World Checklist of Vascular Plants, version 16 v16, as of 2026-06-04
  • Alaska (AK)
  • California (CA)
  • Idaho (ID)
  • Montana (MT)
  • Nevada (NV)
  • Oregon (OR)
  • Washington (WA)

The lossless worldwide derivative is retained once in the research corpus; object pages repeat only exact U.S. areas needed by the local lens. The JSON twin carries the same page assertions.

Plant hardiness evidence

These values describe the plant source. Your ZIP zone comes from the separate 2023 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map. Whole-zone values stay whole-zone, and a single unresolved value is not treated as a tolerance range. Different source boundaries stay separate: overlapping statements are compared independently, while only ranges with no shared zone are called a conflict.

Where its sources say to plant it

Placement rules below use each source's own distances or named zones, tied to its rating. They are not interchangeable with the directory's current Zone 0 guidance.

The evidence

Grouped by what each source concluded. Primary evidence rated the plant itself (a lab, field program, or original curation); corroboration compiled or republished another source's rating and resolves to its root lineage.

Avoids (1)

Corroboration (1 rows from 1 source)
  • Home Landscaping Guide for Lake Tahoe and Vicinity (Ed. Bulletin 06-01) — Nevada Division of Forestry / University of Nevada Cooperative Extension · Bulletin 06-01 (2006) · original source Corroboration Compilation lineage: unr-tree

    “high — Hemlock, mountain — Tsuga mertensiana”

    Table 1's Fire Hazard column prints “high” for this taxon. The guide calls the rating a rough estimate of potential flammability, not a result of scientific trials. Its footnote says plants that turn brown often become high fire hazards and tells readers to mow grasses and forbs when they begin to turn brown.

Listed without a rating (10)
Corroboration (10 rows from 1 source)
  • FLAMITS: FLAMmability plant traiTS database — Dryad / Global Ecology and Biogeography · Dryad version 9 · original source Corroboration Trait database lineage: meta-aggregator

    10 cited rows from this source; its identity, lineage and tier are stated once.

    • Primary study vanWagtendonk1998: Van Wagdendonk, J., Sydoriak, W. M., & Benedict, J. M. (1998). Heat content variation of Sierra Nevada conifers. International Journal of Wildland Fire, 8, 147-158.

      Shared row context: Combustibility measurement; fuel live; predrying yes; device calorimeter; site vanWagtendonk1998-1; sampling ND.

      • Shared measurement context: plant part leaves.

        • “calorific value (kcal/kg): 974.49”

          FLAMITS record 13471.

        • “calorific value (kcal/kg): 5032.48”

          FLAMITS record 13473.

      • Shared measurement context: plant part litter.

        • “calorific value (kcal/kg): 527.85”

          FLAMITS record 13472.

        • “calorific value (kcal/kg): 4910.67”

          FLAMITS record 13474.

      • Shared measurement context: plant part wood.

        • “calorific value (kcal/kg): 4941.72”

          FLAMITS record 13547.

        • “calorific value (kcal/kg): 4815.13”

          FLAMITS record 13548.

        • “calorific value (kcal/kg): 5025.32”

          FLAMITS record 13549.

        • “calorific value (kcal/kg): 4853.35”

          FLAMITS record 13550.

    • Primary study Zhang2022: Zhang, S., Cornwell, W. K., Zhao, W., van Logtestijn, R. S., Krab, E. J., Aerts, R., & Cornelissen, J. H. (2022). Experimental evidence that leaf litter decomposability and flammability are decoupled across gymnosperm species. Journal of Ecology, 111, 761-772.

      Shared row context: plant part leaves; fuel all; predrying yes; device burning bench; site Zhang2022-1; sampling january and march 2011.

      • “maximum flame temperature (°C): 62.252”

        FLAMITS record 15581; Combustibility measurement.

      • “flaming duration (s): 2.4”

        FLAMITS record 15622; Sustainability measurement.

Fire-resistant trees instead

Last verified 2026-08-25. JSON (CC BY 4.0)

Profiles: USDA PLANTS · GBIF · iNaturalist · Wikidata · Wikipedia · ITIS

Tsuga mertensiana (Hemlock, mountain). FireApproved. https://fireapproved.com/plants/tsuga-mertensiana/. Last verified 2026-08-25.