Take a bough...

Western Hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla), Chapel Wood, Windsor Great Park

Here's a fact...

The Western Hemlock was adopted as the State tree of Washington, USA in 1947.

And we all love a good story....

It is said by indigenous people of the Northwest coast that the hemlock hangs its head with humility, on account of its pinecones. Hemlock was late, and last to line up, when cones were given to all evergreen conifer trees with needles, so ended up with the smallest cones of all the trees that were there.

Is the abundance of cones in 2024 a sign of stress and decline or simply a year of high cone production?

https://savehemlocksnc.org/hemlock-cones-a-sign-of-good-health-or-something-else/