Nordmann Fir

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Abies holophylla in PAN Botanical Garden, Warsaw.jpg


Plant Characteristics
Habit   tree

Height: 180 ft"ft" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 180.
Width: 20 ft"ft" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 20.
Lifespan: perennial
Origin: Caucasus, Asia Minor, Greece
Cultivation
Exposure: sun
Water: moist
Features: evergreen
USDA Zones: 4 to 8
Sunset Zones: 3-11, 14-24, 32-37
Scientific Names

Pinaceae >

Abies >

nordmanniana >


Vigorous, densely foliaged fir. Under cultivation reaches 30-50 feet tall, 20 feet wide. Needles are dark green and shiny, .25 to 1.5 inches long, having whitish bands underneath, and densely covering the branches. Does well in warm and dry summer western US and humid mid-Atlantic and southeastern states, but does best with regular water. Can be kept long-term in containers.

Nordmann Fir (Abies nordmanniana) is a fir native to the mountains south and east of the Black Sea, in Turkey, Georgia, Russian Caucasus and northern parts of Armenia. It occurs at altitudes of 900-2,200 m on mountains with a rainfall of over 1,000 mm.

It is a large evergreen coniferous tree growing to 60 m tall and with a trunk diameter of up to 2 m. In the Western Caucasus Reserve, some specimens have been reported to be 78 m and even 85 m tall [1] , the tallest trees in Europe.

The leaves are needle-like, flattened, 1.8-3.5 cm long and 2 mm wide by 0.5 mm thick, glossy dark green above, and with two blue-white bands of stomata below. The tip of the leaf is usually blunt, often slightly notched at the tip, but can be pointed, particularly on strong-growing shoots on young trees. The cones are 10-20 cm long and 4-5 cm broad, with about 150-200 scales, each scale with an exserted bract and two winged seeds; they disintegrate when mature to release the seeds.

More information about this species can be found on the genus page.

Cultivation

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Propagation

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Varieties

There are two subspecies (treated as distinct species by some botanists), intergrading where they meet in northern Turkey at about 36°E longitude:

  • Caucasian Fir Abies nordmanniana subsp. nordmanniana. Native to the Caucasus mountains and northeastern Turkey west to about 36°E. Shoots often pubescent (hairy).
  • Turkish Fir Abies nordmanniana subsp. equi-trojani (syn. A. bornmuelleriana, A. equi-trojani). Native to northwestern Turkey from Mount Ida eastwards to about 36°E. Shoots usually glabrous (hairless).

Gallery

References

External links