Abies concolor

Source: www.nwplants.com

Botanical Name: Abies concolor
Common Name: White Fir, Silver Fir, Colorado Fir
Family: Pinaceae
Type of Plant: Evergreen conifer
Habit: Conical and branched to base, upper branches tend to point upward whereas lower branches are horizontal or directed down.
Growth Rate: Slow
10-Year Height: 
Mature Height: 30-50'
Leaves: Needles curve outwards and upwards on branches, flattened, light green to green to bluish, glaucous on both sides and more or less giving a bluish cast. In heavy shade, needles may show a "flatter" distribution.
Flowers: 
Fruit: Cones erect, stalked, 8-13 cm long, pale green with a purplish bloom, finally brown.
Buds/New Growth: 
Stem/Bark: 
Culture: Sun. Best in deep, rich, moist, well-drained soil, poor on heavy clay. Withstands heat, drought, and cold. Does not tolerate pollution. Hardy to USDA Zone 3.
Pruning: 
Pests/Diseases: 
Landscape Uses: 
Additional Information: concolor: uniform color, refers to both needle surfaces.
Google images of Abies concolor

Calocedrus decurrens

Source: OSU Department of Horticulture

Botanical Name: Calocedrus decurrens
Common Name: Incense Cedar
Family: Cupressaceae
Type of Plant: Evergreen conifer
Habit: Stiff or narrowly columnar in youth, regular in outline, branchlets flattened, terminating in dense, fan-like sprays, wedge-shaped joints.
Growth Rate: 
10-Year Height: 
Mature Height: 70-110'
Leaves: Leaves in 4's closely pressed, a "fluted wine-glass" pattern formed by each outside (lateral) pair of leaves, lustrous dark green throughout the year (little or no winter browning), emitting an aromatic odor when crushed.
Flowers: 
Fruit: Male cones small (3 mm), yellow, female cones cylindrical, 2-2.5 cm long, composed of 6 paired, flattened, and pointed scales ("duck-beaks"), ripening in early autumn.
Buds/New Growth: 
Stem/Bark: Bark light or reddish brown.
Culture: Sun or partial shade. Prefers moist, well-drained, fertile soils, but shows adaptability to different soil types. Hardy to USDA Zone 5.
Pruning: 
Pests/Diseases: 
Landscape Uses: 
Additional Information: calocedrus: from the Greek, kalos, beautiful, and kedros, cedar. decurrens: extending down
Google images of Calocedrus decurrens

Cedrus deodara

Source: OSU Department of Horticulture

Botanical Name: Cedrus deodara
Common Name: Deodar Cedar
Family: Pinaceae
Type of Plant: Evergreen conifer
Habit: Broadly pyramidal with gracefully pendulous branches, drooping central leader, spreading and flat-topped with age. Long branches bearing scattered leaves, and spur-like stems with whorled needles.
Growth Rate: 
10-Year Height: 
Mature Height: 40-70'
Leaves: Needles 15-20 per whorl, or singly on long shoots, light blue or grayish green, or even silvery, softer than C. atlantica).
Flowers: 
Fruit: Male (pollen) cones are upright, 5-7.5 cm long, usually numerous on lower branches, releasing clouds of yellow pollen in fall, then falling and covering the ground. Female (seed) cones are upright, solitary, or in pairs, ovoid, 7.5-10 cm long, require 2 years to mature.
Buds/New Growth: 
Stem/Bark: 
Culture: Sun. Prefers well-drained and somewhat dry soil. Protect from sweeping winds. Hardy to USDA Zone 6 (less hardy than C. atlantica).
Pruning: 
Pests/Diseases: 
Landscape Uses: 
Additional Information: deodara: from the Indian (East) name for the tree.
Google images of Cedrus deodara

Cedrus atlantica 'Glauca'

Source: OSU Department of Horticulture

Botanical Name: Cedrus atlantica 'Glauca'
Common Name: Blue Atlas Cedar
Family: Pinaceae
Type of Plant: Evergreen conifer
Habit: Stiff, erect leader, pyramidal in youth, with age assumes a flat-topped habit with ascending or horizontal branches. Branch tips tend not to droop.
Growth Rate: 
10-Year Height: 
Mature Height: 40-60'
Leaves: Bluish-green needles clustered on spurs, or alternate on leading twigs, somewhat stiff.
Flowers: 
Fruit: Male (pollen) cones are about 5 cm long, erect. They release clouds of yellow pollen in the fall. Female (seed) cones are barrel-shaped, upright, 5-7.5 cm long, and require 2 years to mature.
Buds/New Growth: 
Stem/Bark: 
Culture: Sun or partial shade. Hardy to USDA Zone 6 (not hardy for much of the US).
Pruning: 
Pests/Diseases: 
Landscape Uses: 
Additional Information: 
Google images of Cedrus atlantica 'Glauca'

Tsuga heterophylla

Source: www.nwplants.com

Botanical Name: Tsuga heterophylla
Common Name: Western Hemlock
Family: Pinaceae
Type of Plant: Evergreen conifer
Habit: Narrowly pyramidal when young, pendulous branches.
Growth Rate: 
10-Year Height: 
Mature Height: 60-100'
Leaves: Needles in more or less 2 ranks, although arising from all around the stem, equally broad from base to apex, rounded apex, finely dentate margin, very short petiole, shiny dark green and grooved above, with 2 broad whitish bands below with indistinct edges; persist 4-7 years.
Flowers: 
Fruit: Cones elliptical, light brown, 2-2.5 cm long, each cone contains 30-40 small seeds.
Buds/New Growth: 
Stem/Bark: 
Culture: Sun, but can take a fair amount of shade in the forest.
Pruning: 
Pests/Diseases: 
Landscape Uses: Can be sheared into a hedge when young. Bonsai. Native planting.
Additional Information: State tree of Washington. heterophylla: refers to the different sized leaves on the same twig, smaller toward the tip.
Google images of Tsuga heterophylla

Tsuga mertensiana

Source: www.nwplants.com

Botanical Name: Tsuga mertensiana
Common Name: Mountain Hemlock
Family: Pinaceae
Type of Plant: Evergreen conifer
Habit: Narrowly conical, branches and twigs thin and nodding.
Growth Rate: 
10-Year Height: 
Mature Height: 30-100'
Leaves: Needles arranged radially around the stem, but densest on the upper side, linear, stomatal lines on both sides, apex blunt, base attached to the stem via a roundish "peg" and short petiole, gray-green to silver-white; on short lateral branches the needles are grouped in star-like clusters.
Flowers: 
Fruit: Cones oblong-cylindrical, stalkless, pendulous, often purple when young.
Buds/New Growth: 
Stem/Bark: bark charcoal gray to reddish brown, scaly and deeply fissured.
Culture: Sun, if soil not too dry. Best growth occurs in areas of moist air and cool summer temperatures. Hardy to USDA Zone 5.
Pruning: 
Pests/Diseases: 
Landscape Uses: Bonsai, small gardens.
Additional Information: mertensiana: after Karl Heinrich Mertens, a German botanist who discovered it in 1827.
Google images of Tsuga mertensiana

Tsuga canadensis

Source: OSU Department of Horticulture

Botanical Name: Tsuga canadensis
Common Name: Canadian Hemlock; Eastern Hemlock
Family: Pinaceae
Type of Plant: Evergreen conifer
Habit: Dense, conical crown when young, becoming ragged and irregular with age, branches spreading horizontally from the trunk. Dead branches persist.
Growth Rate: 
10-Year Height: 
Mature Height: 40-80'
Leaves: Needles in 2 ranks, flat, slightly tapered, margin finely toothed, upper side glossy green, whitish below with well-defined stomatal lines. A few shorter needles (usually upside down) over the stem.
Flowers: 
Fruit: Seed cones ovoid, pointed, purplish-brown. Seed release in fall and winter. Spent cones remain on the tree into the next season.
Buds/New Growth: Buds are ovoid and pointed.
Stem/Bark: 
Culture: Sun or shade. Best in moist, well-drained, acid soils, but appears adaptable to calcareous soils. Avoid windy, dry, and wet sites. Hardy to USDA Zone 3b.
Pruning: 
Pests/Diseases: 
Landscape Uses: 
Additional Information: 
Google images of Tsuga canadensis

Polystichum munitum

Source: www.nwplants.com

Botanical Name: Polystichum munitum
Common Name: Sword Fern
Family: Polypodiaceae
Type of Plant: Evergreen fern
Habit: 
Growth Rate: 
10-Year Height: 
Mature Height: 
Leaves: Fronds (leaves) pinnate, leathery, shiny, stiffly erect, dark green, growing from a dense crown. Fronds cut once, pinnae ("leaflets") alternate, medium texture, on the underside, sori (spore-producing bodies) are uniformly spaced in a single row on either side of the midrib; chaffy petiole covered with scales gradually tapering to a point (acuminate).
Flowers: 
Fruit: 
Buds/New Growth: 
Stem/Bark: 
Culture: Part shade to shade. Grows best in rich soil with organic matter and ample water. Polystichum munitum var. imbricans is a compact version which prefers full sun. Hardy to USDA Zone 4.
Pruning: 
Pests/Diseases: 
Landscape Uses: Native planting
Additional Information: Polystichum: poly, many; stichos, rows, referring to the regular row of sori on the underside of the fronds. munitum: armed, with teeth.
Google images of Polystichum munitum

Rhododendron macrophyllum

Source: www.nwplants.com

Botanical Name: Rhododendron macrophyllum
Common Name: Western Rhododendron; Pacific Rhododendron
Family: Ericaceae
Type of Plant: Broadleaf evergreen shrub
Habit: Erect, compact in the open but long strangling branches when crowded.
Growth Rate: 
10-Year Height: 
Mature Height: 6 - 12'
Leaves: Simple, alternate, elliptic to oblong, tapering at both ends, dark green above, paler below but often rusty-colored.
Flowers: 5-lobed, spreading bell-shaped, color varies from pale pink to a rosy purple, rarely white, green/brown spots on the upper lobe, edges crumpled, calyx small, 10 stamens, ovary covered with reddish down. Flower clusters are terminal and may contain 20 or more blooms.
Fruit: 
Buds/New Growth: 
Stem/Bark: 
Culture: Sun to part shade.
Pruning: 
Pests/Diseases: 
Landscape Uses: 
Additional Information: State flower of Washington.
Google images of Rhododendron macrophyllum

Gaultheria shallon

Source: OSU Department of Horticulture

Botanical Name: Gaultheria shallon
Common Name: Salal
Family: Ericaceae
Type of Plant: Broadleaved evergreen shrub
Habit: Dense, developing into thickets, branches erect.
Growth Rate: 
10-Year Height: 
Mature Height: Less than 2' in full sun and poor soil, but 4-10' in shade and good soil.
Leaves: Alternate, simple, oval-rounded, glossy bright green, bristly serrate.
Flowers: Urn-shaped, white or pinkish, borne in late spring.
Fruit: Rounded, black, ripens in summer, edible but bland. Birds attracted to the fruit.
Buds/New Growth: 
Stem/Bark: 
Culture: Sun or part shade, acid soils. Hardy to USDA Zone 6.
Pruning: 
Pests/Diseases: 
Landscape Uses: Good companion for rhododendron and ferns. Native planting. Forest understory shrub.
Additional Information: Gaultheria: after Jean-François Gaulthier (c. 1708-1758), botanist and physician of Quebec. shallon: the native name.
Google images of Gaultheria shallon

Myrica californica

Source: www.nwplants.com

Botanical Name: Myrica californica
Common Name: Pacific Wax Myrtle; California Wax Myrtle
Family: Myricaceae
Type of Plant: Broadleaf evergreen shrub
Habit: Many upright stems, loose.
Growth Rate: 
10-Year Height: 
Mature Height: 30'
Leaves: Simple, alternate, clean looking, 5-11 cm long, narrow, lanceolate, dark green, light green below, dotted with black or yellow glands, regularly toothed.
Flowers: Flowers bloom in spring, small, and in male (staminate) and female (pistillate) catkin-like clusters, may also be bisexual; male and female clusters may be on the same or separate plants, often yellow-green and inconspicuous but may be reddish under good sun exposure. May-June
Fruit: Warty, spherical, green then dark purple to black, usually with a white waxy coating, evident in fall. Birds love the fruit.
Buds/New Growth: 
Stem/Bark: 
Culture: Sun to part shade. Withstands damp locations and summer drought. Hardy to USDA Zone 7.
Pruning: 
Pests/Diseases: 
Landscape Uses: Screen, mixed shrub border.
Additional Information: 
Google images of Myrica californica

Arctostaphylos uva-ursi

Source: www.nwplants.com

Botanical Name: Arctostaphylos uva-ursi
Common Name: Kinnikinnick; Bearberry
Family: Ericaceae
Type of Plant: Evergreen groundcover
Habit: Mat-forming with trailing branches.
Growth Rate: Slow
10-Year Height: < 1'
Mature Height: 6-12"
Leaves: Alternate, simple, obovate-oblong, displayed evenly on stem, lustrous dark green above, lighter below, margins have a fringe of minute hairs (ciliate).
Flowers: Perfect, white-tinged pink, urn-shaped, in terminal nodding racemes. April-May
Fruit: Fleshy fruit (drupe), bright red. Doesn't always fruit.
Buds/New Growth: 
Stem/Bark: Exfoliating bark on older stems.
Culture: Sun or partial shade. Does best in poor, sandy, infertile, acid soils. There are reports that it grows well on limestone rock. Good salt tolerance.
Pruning: 
Pests/Diseases: 
Landscape Uses: Groundcover. Rockeries. Steep banks. Street median plantings (and other neglected areas).
Additional Information: Often find them on mountaintops. uva-ursi: bear's grape (uva, grape; ursi, bear, in the family Ursidae). "Kinnikinnik" is thought to be an Algonquian term meaning "smoke mixture." The dried leaves were smoked by a number of Native American groups living along the Pacific Ocean over the past two centuries, but there is little evidence of these groups smoking it prior to their contact with Europeans (Pojar and MacKinnon, 1994). The berries are still used medicinally to treat bladder and kidney disorders.
Google images of Arctostaphylos uva-ursi

Juniperous scopulorum

Source: www.nwplants.com

Botanical Name: Juniperous scopulorum
Common Name: Common Juniper
Family: Cupressaceae
Type of Plant: Evergreen conifer tree
Habit: Narrow, pyramidal, often with several main stems.
Growth Rate: Slow
10-Year Height: < 6'
Mature Height: 30 - 40'
Leaves: Scale-like, tightly appressed, dark or light bluish green, rhombic-ovate, apex acute or acuminate.
Flowers: Monoecious or dioecious. Male has 6 stamens.
Fruit: Cones ripen the second year, globose, dark blue, glaucous bloomy, pulp sweetish. Seeds 2, triangular, reddish brown, prominently angled, grooved.
Buds/New Growth: 
Stem/Bark: Bark reddish brown or gray, shredding but persistent.
Culture: Full sun. Withstands drought conditions very well.
Pruning: 
Pests/Diseases: 
Landscape Uses: Can be used in bonsai. Screens, hedges, backgrounds, foundation plants.
Additional Information: scopulorum: growing on cliffs.

Juniperus communis

Source: www.nwplants.com

Botanical Name: Juniperus communis
Common Name: Common Juniper
Family: Cupressaceae
Type of Plant: Evergreen convifer
Habit: Various forms, from groundcover to shrub.
Growth Rate: Slow
10-Year Height: < 6'
Mature Height: 5 - 10'
Leaves: Only awl-shaped (needles), spreading at a wide angle from the stem, tapering to a spiny point, concave above with a wide white band, often in whorls of 3, persisting for 3 years. Branchlets triangular with projecting ridges.
Flowers: Usually dioecious, staminate yellow.
Fruit: Female cones, solitary, globose, green at first then bluish or black, covered with waxy bloom. Seeds usually 3, elongated ovoid, tri-cornered with depressions between. Fruits used as a diuretic and for flavoring gin.
Buds/New Growth: 
Stem/Bark: Reddish brown, scaling off in papery sheets.
Culture: Full sun
Pruning: 
Pests/Diseases: 
Landscape Uses: Can be handsome groundcover for sandy soils and waste places, useful for undergrowth and naturalized plantings.
Additional Information: 

Osmanthus × burkwoodii

Source: OSU Department of Horticulture

Botanical Name: Osmanthus × burkwoodii
Common Name: Burkwood Osmanthus
Family: Oleaceae
Type of Plant: Broadleaf evergreen shrub
Habit: Bushy shrub
Growth Rate: Slow
10-Year Height: < 6'
Mature Height: 8'
Leaves: Opposite, ovate to ovate-elliptic, tip narrow acute, base rounded to wedge-shaped (cuntate), margin slightly toothed, glossy, bright green.
Flowers: White, small, short tubular, 4-lobed, fragrant, similar to those of O. delavayi, cover the plant in spring.
Fruit: Seldomed produced, blue to purple, small, oval.
Buds/New Growth: 
Stem/Bark: 
Culture: Sun to part shade.
Pruning: 
Pests/Diseases: 
Landscape Uses: Good hedge. Mixed shrub border.
Additional Information: Easy to grow. A hybrid between O. delavayi and O. decorus produced in England before 1928. Osmanthus: from Greek osme, fragrance, and anthos, flowers. burkwoodii: after Burkwood and Shipwith nursery in England, the raisers.

Osmanthus delavayi

Botanical Name: Osmanthus delavayi
Common Name: Delavay Osmanthus
Family: Oleaceae
Type of Plant: Broadleaf evergreen shrub
Habit: Shrub with twiggy growth, well covered by foliage, neat, with graceful arching branches.
Growth Rate: 
10-Year Height: < 6'
Mature Height: 6' - 8'
Leaves: Opposite, simple, ovate, small, finely toothed, glossy dark green.
Flowers: White, numerous, small, 4 reflexed lobes, fragrant.
Fruit: Blue-black mature fruit.
Buds/New Growth: 
Stem/Bark: 
Culture: Sun or shade.
Pruning: 
Pests/Diseases: 
Landscape Uses: 
Additional Information: Native to western and southwestern China. Osmanthus: from Greek osme, fragrance, and anthos, flowers. delavayi: after Abbè Jean Marie Delavay (1838-95), French missionary in China who introduced it to France in 1890.

Skimmia japonica

Source: OSU Department of Horticulture

Botanical Name: Skimmia japonica
Common Name: Japanese Skimmia
Family: Rutaceae
Type of Plant: Evergreen shrub
Habit: Dense, rounded to haystack-shaped, evergreen shrub of rather gentle proportions.
Growth Rate: Slow
10-Year Height: < 6'
Mature Height: 2' - 3'
Leaves: Alternate, simple, evergreen, crowded at end of branches and appearing whorled, elliptic-oblong to oblong-obovate, bright green upon emerging, finally dark green above, entire, glabrous, peppery citrus smell when bruised. Petiole short, glabrous, reddish purple.
Flowers: Dioecious. Glossy maroon-red in bud, creamy white when open, weakly fragrant, borne in 2-3" long upright panicles. March-April. Flowers on male plants larger and more fragrant.
Fruit: Only on female plant, bright red, globose drupe that ripens in October and persists into the following spring. Fruit is borne at end of shoots in panicles. About 1 male to 6 males is necessary for good fruit set.
Buds/New Growth: Imbricate, covered in with red scales, glabrous.
Stem/Bark: Stem stout, green with an overcast of reddish purple, glabrous, spicy fragrant when bruised. Pith: ample, excavated, green.
Culture: Part shade to shade.
Pruning: 
Pests/Diseases: Skimmia mites.
Landscape Uses: Shade garden.
Additional Information: 

Chamaecyparis pisifera 'Sungold'

Source: OSU Department of Horticulture

Botanical Name: Chamaecyparis pisifera 'Sungold'
Common Name: Sungold False Cypress
Family: Cupressaceae
Type of Plant: Evergreen conifer
Habit: Loose, open shrub with numerous branchlets in slender feathery sprays.
Growth Rate: Medium
10-Year Height: < 6'
Mature Height: 3' - 5'
Leaves: Scale-like, golden color, thread-like branchlets, sharp pointed. White markings on underside.
Flowers: Monoecious. Insignificant.
Fruit: Cones look like shriveled peas. Crowded, short-stalked.
Buds/New Growth: 
Stem/Bark: Thread-like branchlets. Bark is rather smooth, reddish brown.
Culture: Full sun
Pruning: 
Pests/Diseases: 
Landscape Uses: Foundation plant, rock garden, specimen, somewhere that needs color.
Additional Information: 

Chamaecyparis obtusa 'Gracilis'

Source: OSU Department of Horticulture

Botanical Name: Chamaecyparis obtusa 'Gracilis'
Common Name: Slender Hinoki False Cypress
Family: Cupressaceae
Type of Plant: Evergreen conifer
Habit: Has a sculpted look, with cup-like and blunt branchlets.
Growth Rate: Slow
10-Year Height: < 6'
Mature Height: 12' - 20'
Leaves: Closely pressed, scale-like, white X and Y markings on underside, cupped branchlets. Dieback on inside in winter.
Flowers: Monecious. Insignificant.
Fruit: Soccer ball cones, short-stalked.
Buds/New Growth: 
Stem/Bark: Reddish brown, shed in long narrow strips.
Culture: Full sun.
Pruning: 
Pests/Diseases: 
Landscape Uses: Woodland edge, alpine garden, specimen, foundation plant, line softener.
Additional Information: obtusa: blunt, the leaves

Chamaecyparis nootkatensis 'Pendula'

Source: OSU Department of Horticulture

Botanical Name: Chamaecyparis nootkatensis 'Pendula'
Common Name: Weeping Alaska Cedar
Family: Cupressaceae
Type of Plant: Evergreen conifer
Habit: Upright, weepy, "wizard sleeves"
Growth Rate: Medium
10-Year Height: > 10'
Mature Height: 30' - 45'
Leaves: Closely pressed, same color on both sides, scale-like, feather-like leaflet, usually not glandular, gray-green to bluish green, rank-smelling when crushed.
Flowers: Monecious. April-May
Fruit: Male: creamy white tips. Female: Round and woody. Cones are like soccer balls: globose, with 4 (6) scales furnished with a triangular pointed boss, ripen in second year.
Buds/New Growth: 
Stem/Bark: Branches usually pendulous. Reddish brown bark.
Culture: Full sun.
Pruning: 
Pests/Diseases: 
Landscape Uses: Specimen, focal point, screen, woodland edge, native area.
Additional Information: