Photos and Characteristics of Wetland Plant Species > This Category

Tsuga canadensis ~ eastern hemlock

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Characteristics:

• FACU (often functions as a FAC species in northern Michigan)

• Michigan C Value: 5

• typically with beech, sugar maple in FACU areas, but also can be dominant in coniferous headwater swamps and ravine wetlands

• in Northern Michigan, hemlock is often a dominant species in hardwood conifer swamps

• Regional Supplement to the Corps of Engineers Wetland Delineation Manual: Northcentral and Northeast Region describes eastern hemlock as a "FACU species that commonly dominates wetlands"

• if data calculations show that a potential wetland area lacks hydrophytic vegetation indicators due to the presence of eastern hemlock, the species can be dropped from a sampling plot's vegetation data, and the species list and coverage data for the remaining species in the community can be reevaluated using hydrophytic vegetation indicator Dominance Test and/or Prevalence Index

• hardwood conifer swamps are often associated with headwater streams or shallow kettle depressions in poorly drained outwash channels or in depressions on outwash plains, some types of end moraines, and some types of glacial lakeplains in northern Michigan

• short needles, mostly 6 to 13 mm long, in flat sprays

• very small female cones, mostly 13 to 22 mm long

• the needles are minutely toothed toward the rounded apex and are on distinct, tiny raised pegs

• also known as Canadian hemlock

• native