The Hemlock is a lovely, lofty evergreen of graceful pyramidal shape and feathery, dark foliage of linear leaves or needles about 3 cm long that spread out on either side of the branchlets to give a “flat” appearance to the leaf spray.
The tiny cones rarely as much as 3 cm long, hang on the tips of the branchlets through the year and the brown cones of the previous season and the green cones of the current season often are found on the tree at the same time. At maturity it may reach a height of 30 m. with a trunk diameter of 1.5 m. or more.
The bark is thick, reddish brown or gray with scaly ridges. Its life span may reach more than 600 years.
