Trees of the Pacific Northwest, by region

The wet coast, west of the Cascades and Coast Mountains

This is the rainforest side: Vancouver Island, the BC coast, the Olympic Peninsula and the lowlands around Puget Sound and western Oregon.

• Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii): flat needles 3/4 to 1 1/4 in (2 to 3 cm), fragrant when crushed. The cones, 3 to 4 in (7.5 to 10 cm) long, hang down and carry three-pronged bracts that OSU calls "pitchfork-shaped". The Tree Book places the coastal variety on the southern mainland coast and across Vancouver Island except its northern tip. It is Oregon's state tree.
• Western redcedar (Thuja plicata): tiny scale leaves in flat sprays with a white, butterfly-shaped pattern underneath; small, upturned cones about 1/2 in (1.3 cm) with 5 to 6 pairs of scales; thin, stringy, reddish-brown bark that comes off in long strips; and a trunk base often swollen and fluted. It grows to 200 ft (60 m). The cedar guide separates it from junipers and true cedars.
• Western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla): needles 1/4 to 3/4 in (6 to 19 mm), flat, in two distinctly different sizes on the same twig, with two white bands beneath. Cones about 1 in (2.5 cm). Look up: the leader and branch tips droop. It is Washington's state tree, adopted in 1947 (Washington State Legislature).
• Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis): stiff, very sharp needles about 1 in long, each on a woody peg; cones 1 1/2 to 3 1/2 in with thin scales notched at the edge. OSU says it grows only along the Pacific coast and near sea level; the Tree Book places it in a narrow band up to about 700 m (2,300 ft), most common in the coastal fog belt and on river flood plains.
• Grand fir (Abies grandis): flat needles 3/4 to 2 in, notched at the tip, arranged in two flat rows with white bands below; upright, barrel-shaped cones 2 to 4 in that fall apart on the branch. In BC it grows on the southern coast and around the Kootenay and Columbia rivers.
• Bigleaf maple (Acer macrophyllum): leaves 6 to 12 in (15 to 30 cm) across, sometimes larger, with 5 deep lobes and milky sap in the leaf stalk; fuzzy-headed seed pairs. In BC it is restricted to the southwest corner.
• Vine maple (Acer circinatum): round leaves 2 to 4 in across with 7 to 9 shallow lobes; seed wings spread in a straight line; a multi-stemmed shrub or small tree, 20 to 40 ft, often arching under conifers.
• Red alder (Alnus rubra): oval, double-toothed leaves 3 to 6 in with edges tightly rolled under; small woody cones that hang all winter; smooth gray bark often patched white with lichens. OSU notes there are few creeks in western Oregon not overhung by alders, and red alder is the only abundant one. The Tree Book places it along the entire BC coast. See the alder guide.
• Black cottonwood (Populus trichocarpa, also listed as Populus balsamifera ssp. trichocarpa): large, sticky, fragrant buds; leaves dark green above and silvery below. Virginia Tech calls it the tallest broadleaf tree in the West, to 200 ft. The Tree Book says it grows west of the Rocky Mountains.
• Pacific yew (Taxus brevifolia), called western yew in BC: a small understory tree with flat needles about 1 in long, pointed but not sharp, green below without white bands; thin, scaly reddish bark; a red, fleshy cup (aril) around one seed. More on yews in the yew guide.
• Pacific dogwood (Cornus nuttallii): opposite leaves 3 to 5 in with curving veins; 4 to 6 large white bracts around a small flower head; tight clusters of red fruits. The Tree Book places it on the southern coast and Vancouver Island south of Port Hardy. See the dogwood guide.

Never eat a berry, nut, seed or pod on the strength of a web page or an app; check with a local expert.

Rain-shadow pockets: arbutus and Garry oak

Inside the wet region are dry, sunny pockets, such as southeastern Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands, where rocky, fast-draining soils hold little water. Two broadleaf trees mark them.

• Pacific madrone, arbutus in Canada (Arbutus menziesii): thin bark peeling in patches of orange, red, brown and green; glossy, leathery evergreen leaves 3 to 5 in; clusters of small white urn-shaped flowers; orange-red berries with a pebbly skin. BC's Tree Book calls it "the only native broadleaf evergreen tree in Canada" and says it generally grows within 8 km (5 miles) of the ocean, often on rocky bluffs.
• Oregon white oak, Garry oak in Canada (Quercus garryana): leathery, glossy leaves 3 to 6 in with 5 to 9 rounded, irregular lobes; acorns about 1 in in a shallow cap; gray, furrowed bark. In BC it grows on southeastern Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands, with isolated groups in the lower Fraser Valley, forming open meadows the Tree Book describes as threatened by urban development. OSU says that in Oregon it seldom grows west of the Coast Range summit and reaches eastern Oregon only along the Columbia Gorge. More oaks in the oak guide.

The dry interior, east of the mountains

Cross the Cascades or the Coast Mountains into eastern Washington and Oregon or BC's southern Interior, and the forest opens up.

• Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa): needles 5 to 10 in (13 to 25 cm), in bundles of three, tufted near branch ends; cones 3 to 5 in with a stiff prickle on each scale; old bark in yellow-orange plates shaped like jigsaw puzzle pieces. The Tree Book calls it "the characteristic tree of the southern Interior".
• Lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta): two twisted needles per bundle, 1 to 3 in; small cones that may stay closed for years. OSU notes that trees along the coast are commonly called shore pine. The Tree Book says it grows throughout BC's Interior from mid elevation to subalpine sites.
• Western larch (Larix occidentalis): a conifer that drops its needles. Soft needles 1 to 1 3/4 in, in tufts on short spur shoots, turning golden in fall; small cones with bristle-like bracts. The Tree Book places it in valleys and lower mountain slopes of the southern Interior. The tamarack page covers larches in general.
• Interior Douglas-fir and trembling (quaking) aspen also grow here: the Tree Book places interior Douglas-fir throughout southern BC and north to Takla Lake, and aspen throughout the province east of the Coast Ranges.

The mountains: near the tree line

Higher up on both sides, three conifers take over:

• Subalpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa): a narrow, spire-shaped crown and upright cones. The Tree Book gives 600 to 2,250 m (2,000 to 7,400 ft) through most of BC's Interior.
• Mountain hemlock (Tsuga mertensiana): blue-green needles the same color on all sides, crowded in star-like clusters; cylindrical cones 1 to 3 in, longer than western hemlock's. It grows from mid elevation to timberline in the coastal mountains.
• Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmannii): a high-elevation spruce with sharp needles on woody pegs; the Tree Book places it at high elevations throughout the BC Interior.

To sort any needle tree in this list, the conifer identification key asks three questions; the spruce vs fir guide handles the most common confusion.

The most common trees in the Pacific Northwest

By number of trees, Douglas-fir leads. The US Forest Service's Forest Resources of the United States, 2017 estimates about 6 billion live Douglas-firs in its Pacific Coast region (excluding Alaska), with 2.4 billion tons of aboveground biomass, and western hemlock next at 2.4 billion trees. The most common trees in the US puts those numbers in the national ranking.

State and provincial trees follow the same few species: western hemlock for Washington (1947), Douglas-fir for Oregon (per OSU), and western redcedar for British Columbia (see the Canada tree guide for every provincial tree).

Free guides for BC, Washington and Oregon

Checked on 21 October 2026:

• Tree Book: Learning to Recognize Trees of British Columbia, BC Ministry of Forests. Free online, with a downloadable PDF. Its introduction says British Columbia has "about 40 different species of native trees", and each species page has a "where to find" section.
• Common Trees of the Pacific Northwest, Oregon State University. A free website with a step-by-step key for conifers and broadleaves, genus descriptions and a "mystery tree" quiz. Its stated purpose is to help you "identify common conifers and broadleaves in the Pacific Northwest".
• Trees to Know in Oregon and Washington (EC 1450) by Edward C. Jensen, OSU Extension. A book, revised January 2021 and reviewed 2025, with more than 400 color photos, 70 maps, identification keys and over 50 ornamental trees. The catalog page links a PDF and sells print copies.

In the field, a quick first answer can come from a photo: Tree Identifier names a tree from one picture of a cone, a needle spray, a leaf or the bark, and its follow-up chat can answer a question such as "is this grand fir or western hemlock?". It shows no confidence score, so check the result against the one feature in the table above. The app's Collection includes Douglas-fir and western redcedar, and its Tree Map keeps each find you locate.