General: Evergreen shrub to small tree, 2-15 m high, up to 30 cm diameter; branches droop; trunk often twisted and fluted; bark reddish, papery, scaly to shreddy.
Leaves: Needles flat, 2-3 cm long, dull green above, striped with stomata below, ending abruptly in fine point, arranged in 2 rows in flat sprays.
Fruits: Male and female cones inconspicuous, on separate trees; although a conifer, instead of a seed cone it produces a single bony seed almost completely surrounded by a bright red, fleshy cup that looks like a large red huckleberry with a hole in the end; poisonous to humans although highly attractive to birds.
Ecology: Moist mature forest at low to middle elevations in the southern part of our region, often with Douglas Fir and Western Hemlock in productive old-growth forests as a small understorey tree; from northern Vancouver Island north, in low-elevation, open, scrubby Redcedar-Western Hemlock forests, as a mid-canopy or understorey tree or shrub; in Alaska and much of northern mainland B.C., only within a few km of shoreline.