Sitka Spruce
Picea sitchensis · Trees - Conifers
Old growth, the Hoh
Hoh Rain Forest, 20 June 2021
One old tree carrying its own hanging garden. The canopy here is Sitka spruce and western hemlock, and from below with the light behind them the two are not easy to separate. The heavier, more open branching says spruce, which is what I think this is, but I would not swear to it from this angle.
Trees in this forest reach 250 feet and live for several centuries. The moss makes them look older still.
Straight up, the Hoh
Hoh Rain Forest, 20 June 2021
Conifer trunks converging overhead - the stiff, layered branching says Sitka spruce - with moss thick enough on the lower branches to read as fur rather than plant.
The Hoh gets three to four metres of rain a year, and almost everything with bark here carries an epiphyte load as a result: club moss and lichen mostly, none of it taking anything from the tree beyond somewhere to sit. A branch can end up heavier in moss than in its own needles.
Birds, insects, plants and other wildlife, mostly from Brooklyn, with some from further afield.
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