Five Things You Don't Know About Pacific Northwest Trees

For years, scientists believed the dawn redwood was extinct. One of the world’s only deciduous conifers, the tree reproduces through cones and loses its leaves every year. In the 1940s, a living dawn redwood was discovered at a Buddhist temple in China. Seeds from that tree were sent all over the world to repopulate the beautiful and unusual species. One of those seeds made its way to Puget Sound and today, our very own dawn redwood stands between Collins Memorial Library and Schneebeck Concert Hall.

Our region is synonymous with majestic evergreen forests, as evidenced by Washington’s unofficial nickname, the Evergreen State. However, a common misconception is that the prevalence of evergreens is linked to the heavy rainfall we experience. Actually, the opposite is true—evergreens, with their leathery leaves or needles, are better able to store water during dry spells, making them better equipped to withstand our hot, dry summers than deciduous trees.

Globally, forests play an important role in removing carbon from the atmosphere. Unlike forests in many other parts of the world, our wet, mild climate means that trees in the Pacific Northwest can grow year-round, increasing the amount of carbon they can pull from the atmosphere during their lifetimes. When the trees eventually die, they decompose slowly, keeping all that carbon locked away for a long time.

Rather than competing for resources when rain is scarce, trees actually help other plants stay hydrated. The hydraulic pressure of their root systems brings water from deep underground to the surface. Surrounding plants with shallower root systems can then tap into this water, which would otherwise be inaccessible.

You probably already know that trees provide valuable habitat to many different animals, including birds, small mammals, and insects, but did you know they host vast colonies of fungus? One type of fungus, known as mycorrhizae, grows underground as an extension of the root system of host trees. These mycorrhizal networks help transfer water to the tree, stabilize soils, and link plants to one another—but that’s not all. Recent studies have found that these fungal networks allow trees to communicate with each other through chemical signals, helping them alert nearby plants of disease or infestations.