The noble fir has most certainly earned its name, particularly because it is the largest native fir in North America. This tall, narrow tree features a long, columnar trunk and conical crown with short, nearly horizontal branches.
A. procera is a large evergreentree up to 70 m (130–230 ft) tall and 2 m (6.5 ft) in trunk diameter, rarely to 90 m (295 ft) tall and 2.7 m (8.9 ft) in diameter, with a narrow conic crown. The bark on young trees, is smooth and gray 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 stomal 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 (4.3–8.7 in) 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.
The specific epithet procera means tall.
A. procera is very closely related to red fir (A. magnifica), which replaces it farther southeast in southernmost Oregon and California, is 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 A. magnifica var. shastensis, this variety is considered by some botanists to be a hybrid between noble fir and red fir.
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The noble fir has most certainly earned its name, particularly because it is the largest native fir in North America. This tall, narrow tree features a long, columnar trunk and conical crown with short, nearly horizontal branches.
Uses
Noble fir is a popular Christmas tree.
The wood is used for general structural purposes and paper manufacture.
The prostrate grey cultivar A. procera (Glauca Group) ‘Glauca Prostrata’ has gained the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit.
A. procera is a large evergreen tree up to 70 m (130–230 ft) tall and 2 m (6.5 ft) in trunk diameter, rarely to 90 m (295 ft) tall and 2.7 m (8.9 ft) in diameter, with a narrow conic crown. The bark on young trees, is smooth and gray 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 stomal 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 (4.3–8.7 in) 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.
The specific epithet procera means tall.
A. procera is very closely related to red fir (A. magnifica), which replaces it farther southeast in southernmost Oregon and California, is 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 A. magnifica var. shastensis, this variety is considered by some botanists to be a hybrid between noble fir and red fir.
Abies procera, the noble fir, also called red fir and Christmas tree 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 high-altitude tree, typically occurring at 300–1,500 m (980–4,920 ft) altitude, only rarely reaching the tree line.