Eastern Hemlock

We have a hemlock tree on our property! It is the Eastern Hemlock, or Tsuga canadensis.

Earlier this week it was struggling to survive:

You can just barely make out the evergreen leaves at the top left hand side. The rest of the tree is covered with invasive vines, mostly japanese honeysuckle creeper, and also some mile-a-minute and bramble.

After quite a lot of clipping, ta da! the tree is free!

You can see, though, that the creepers have almost been successful. There are a lot of bare branches, and I don’t know whether they will survive or not. Personally, I think the tree will make it – it has survived such a lot already.

So, now that the plant is exposed to the light, we’ll have to watch and see if it puts out new shoots.

This is what the living branches look like:

And, if you want to know more about hemlock forests, here’s a link: https://www.nwf.org/Educational-Resources/Wildlife-Guide/Threats-to-Wildlife/Climate-Change/Habitats/Eastern-Hemlock-Forests

You’ll see that among other wildlife, the pileated woodpecker makes its home in hemlock forests. Let us know in the comments section if you see any.