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Botanical Name
Tsuga heterophylla

Western Hemlock

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Details

Tsuga heterophylla, the western hemlock or western hemlock-spruce, is the largest hemlock, a conifer in the pine family native to the northwest coast of North America, from the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska to northern Sonoma County in California. It is a main part of Pacific Northwest temperate rainforest and a source of timber, tannin and edible cambium. Native Alaskans of the southeast, including the Tlingit, scraped the cambium from removed bark and ate it fresh or dried and pressed it into bread. Some Native American tribes ate the inner bark as an emergency food and cooked the bark into medicinal extracts. The bark also gives a dark red dye. The Tlingit submerge boughs to collect herring eggs. The tender new needles are chewed or made into a tea rich in vitamin C.

References

#1#2

Correspondences

Elements
No elements recorded.
Celestial Bodies
No celestial bodies recorded.
Zodiac Signs
No zodiac signs recorded.
Colours
No colours recorded.
Deities
No deities recorded.

Folk Names

  • Western Hemlock-Spruce

Categories

  • Luck
  • Protection
  • Purification

Substitutes

No substitutes recorded.

Forms

Bark

Cooked into medicinal extracts, boiled for a dark red dye, and used as a source of tannin for tanning leather.

References

#3

Leaf

The tender new needles are chewed or made into a tea.

References

#4

Stem

Submerged in southeast Alaska to collect herring eggs.

References

#5

References

Notes

  1. Moerman, "Native American Ethnobotany Database," Haisla and Hanaksiala, Other: Good Luck Charm; Compton 1993, p. 180 (NAEB record 40970); Kwakwaka'wakw, Other: Protection; Compton 1993, p. 71 (NAEB record 41023); Haisla and Hanaksiala, Other: Ceremonial Items; Compton 1993, p. 180 (NAEB record 40968); Kwakiutl, Drug: Hunting Medicine; Turner and Bell 1973, p. 270 (NAEB record 41016); Kwakwaka'wakw, Drug: Ceremonial Medicine; Compton 1993, p. 71 (NAEB record 41020); Oweekeno, Drug: Ceremonial Medicine; Compton 1993, p. 71 (NAEB record 41050).
  2. Wikipedia, under "Tsuga heterophylla."
  3. Wikipedia, under "Tsuga heterophylla."
  4. Wikipedia, under "Tsuga heterophylla."
  5. Wikipedia, under "Tsuga heterophylla."

Bibliography