Douglas-fir

An evergreen, the Douglas-fir is a native of the West from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Coast and from British Columbia to Mexico. It is Oregon’s state tree. It was named after explorer-botanist David Douglas, who found the species in Oregon. The shape, especially when young, is pyramidal. Douglas-fir is not a true fir but a separate genus. Native Americans boiled the bark into a dye, used its pitch on sores, and made tea from pitch to use as a cold remedy. It is a valuable timber tree, which grows over 300 feet and lives up to 2,000 years.