RUFF'S GREENHOUSE - PRODUCTS - TREES

Ruff's Greeenhouses

White Spruce

navbar

Shape - Large with narrow crown.
Height - Grows up to 40 metres tall.
Width - One metre in diameter when mature.
Bark - Loose, scaly and greyish brown.
Growing Region - White Spruce and it's hybrids are found throughout the Interior from sea level to mid-elevations. In the Central Interior, White Spruce cross bred with Engelmann Spruce is called Interior Spruce.
Present Uses - Important commercial tree which yields excellent lumber and pulp.
Past Uses - Historically, White Spruce saplings have been fashioned into snowshoe frames. Aboriginals used the gum to fasten fasten skins onto bows and arrowheads to shafts. Decayed wood was used for tanning hides. Spruce bark was used to make cooking pots and trays for gathering berries.

Lodgepole Pine

Shape - Tall, slender tree.
Height - Grows up to 40 metres tall.
Bark - Thin, orangey-brown to grey. Fine scales.
Growing Region - Lodgepole pine can be found growing throughout the Interior of British Columbia, from mid-elevation to sub-alpine locations.
Present Uses - It is an excellent source for lumber, plywood and paneling. It uses include making doors, windows, railway ties, fence posts and mine props.
Past Uses - The First Nations people of British Columbia had a variety of uses for Lodgepole Pine. This includes poles for lodges and homes. In the spring, bark was stripped off the tree in long ribbons. The sweet inner bark was eaten. The pitch from the Lodgepole pine was used as a base for medicine and also chewed to relieve sore throats.

Douglas Fir

(two varieties Interior and Coastal)

Shape - Older trees have long, branch free trunks. Crowns are short,
cylindrical and have a flattened top.
Height - Grows to heights of 85 metres on the Coast and 42 metres in the Interior.
Bark - Smooth grey brown. When young, bark has gummy resin filled blisters. Bark grows very thick with age and deeply grooved with dark reddish brown ridges.
Growing Region - Grows along Southern Mainland Coast and across Vancouver Island, except for the northern tip. Interior Douglas Fir grows throughout Southern British Columbia and north to Takla Lake.
Present Uses - This wood has been valued since the 18th Century when the first Europeans exported lumber. Douglas Fir yields an exceptionally hard and durable wood. It uses include heavy duty construction, wharves, trestles, bridge parts and commercial building.
Past Uses - Aboriginals, of British Columbia, used the wood and boughs as fuel for pit cooking, fishing hooks and handles. Boughs were sometimes used for covering the floors of lodges.

Western Red Cedar

Shape - Mature trees are fluted and buttressed at the base. Branches tend
to spread or droop lightly, then upturn.
Height - Grows up to 50 metres tall.
Bark - Gray to reddish brown in color. Bark tears off in long fibrous strips. Wood is aromatic.
Growing Region - Grows in moist to wet soils, usually in shaded forests at low elevations. Also grows in drier habitats with rich soil. It is abundant in the wettest southern parts of the region, and in the wet belt southeast of Prince George and the middle Skeena drainage around Hazelton.
Present Uses - British Columbia's provincial tree is a premium choice of many home builders.
It is used in the manufacture of shingles and siding. It's color and aromatic quality enhances products made from Western Red Cedar.
Past Uses - Widely used and versatile, the wood of this tree was used for everything from building homes, canoes and totem poles to cooking utensils and clothing.

Contact Information

Phone: 250-963-9815
Fax: 250-963-3134
bruff@ruffs.com

Aboutus/ Products/ Forestry facts/ Home

PRETTY FINE DESIGNS

Copyright ©
1998-99 PF-Designs