mertensiana stretches from Kenai Peninsula, Alaska, to northern Tulare County, California. Its range fairly closely matches that of T. heterophylla (western hemlock), found less than from the Pacific Ocean, apart from an inland population in the Rocky Mountains in southeast British Columbia, northern Idaho, and western Montana. The inland populations most likely established after deglaciation by remarkable long-distance dispersal of more than from the coast populations. Their ranges differ in California, where western hemlock is restricted to the Coast Ranges and mountain hemlock is found in the Klamath Mountains and Sierra Nevada. Unlike western hemlock, mountain hemlock mostly grows at high altitudes except in the far north, from sea level to in Alaska, in the Cascades in Oregon, and in the Sierra Nevada. Ecology Mountain hemlock is usually found on cold, snowy subalpine sites where it grows slowly, sometimes attaining more than 800 years in age. Arborescent individuals that have narrowly conical crowns until old age (300 to 400 years) and shrubby krummholz on cold, windy sites near timberline add beauty to mountain landscapes. Areas occupied by mountain hemlock generally have a cool to cold maritime climate that includes mild to cold winters, a short, warm-to-cool growing season and moderate to high precipitation. Best development of mountain hemlock is on loose, coarse-textured, well-drained soils with adequate moisture, and in British Columbia, on thick and very acidic organic matter and decayed wood. Adequate soil moisture appears to be especially important in California and Montana, where summer drought is most pronounced. Mountain hemlock will grow on most landforms, but individuals typically develop best in mixed stands of forest on sheltered slopes or in draws. From southern British Columbia south, the tree grows better on northerly exposures. The preference for relatively moist, cool sites evidently becomes a necessity as the climate becomes more continental in western Montana and more mediterranean in the central Sierra Nevada at these extremes of its range. In these locations, mountain hemlock typically grows in isolated populations in north-facing glens and cirque basins where snow collects and may remain well into summer. Mountain hemlock is adapted to sites with long-lasting snowpacks. In the spring, mountain hemlocks emerging through of snow were transpiring, whereas nearby whitebark pines did not transpire until the soil beneath them was free of snow. Mountain hemlock is well adapted to cope with heavy snow and ice loads, with tough branches and the drooping branchlets shedding