Abies procera
| Habit | tree
| |
|---|---|---|
| Height: | ⇕ | 150 ft"ft" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 150. |
| Width: | ⇔ | 30 ft"ft" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 30. |
| Lifespan: | ⌛ | perennial |
| Origin: | ✈ | Oregon, Washington |
| Exposure: | ☼ | sun |
|---|---|---|
| Water: | ◍ | moist |
| Features: | ✓ | evergreen |
| USDA Zones: | 4 to 9 |
|
Pinaceae > |
Abies > |
procera > |
The Noble Fir (Abies procera) is a western North American fir, native to the Cascade Range and Coast Range mountains of extreme northwest California and western Oregon and Washington in the United States.
It is a large evergreen tree typically up to 40-70 m (130-230 ft.) tall and 2 m (6.5 ft.) trunk diameter, rarely to 90 m (295 ft.) tall and 2.7 m (8.9 ft.) diameter[1], with a narrow conic crown. The bark on young trees is smooth, grey, and with resin blisters, becoming red-brown, rough and fissured on old trees. The leaves are needle-like, 1-3.5 cm long, glaucous blue-green above and below with strong stomatal bands, and a blunt to notched tip. They are arranged spirally on the shoot, but twisted slightly s-shaped to be upcurved above the shoot. The cones are erect, 11-22 cm long, with the purple scales almost completely hidden by the long exserted yellow-green bract scales; ripening brown and disintegrating to release the winged seeds in fall.
It is a high altitude tree, typically occurring at 300-1,500 m altitude, only rarely reaching tree line.
It is very closely related to Red Fir (Abies magnifica), which replaces it further southeast in southernmost Oregon and California, being best distinguished by the leaves having a groove along the midrib on the upper side; Red Fir does not show this. Red Fir also tends to have the leaves less closely packed, with the shoot bark visible between the leaves, whereas the shoot is largely hidden in Noble Fir. Red Fir cones also mostly have shorter bracts, except in Abies magnifica var. shastensis; this variety is considered by some botanists to be a hybrid between Noble Fir and Red Fir.
- More information about this species can be found on the genus page.
Cultivation
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Propagation
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Pests and diseases
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Varieties
- There is a var. glauca in the trade.
Gallery
As Christmas tree
Trunk
photo
References
- American Horticultural Society: A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants, by Christopher Brickell, Judith D. Zuk. 1996. ISBN 0789419432
External links
- w:Abies procera. Some of the material on this page may be from Wikipedia, under the Creative Commons license.
- Abies procera QR Code (Size 50, 100, 200, 500)
- ↑ "Gymnosperm Database - Abies procera". Retrieved on 2008-06-28.