''Abies nordmanniana'', the Nordmann fir or Caucasian fir, is a

fir Firs (''Abies'') are a genus of 48–56 species of evergreen coniferous trees in the family Pinaceae. They are found on mountains throughout much of North and Central America, Europe, Asia, and North Africa. The genus is most closely relat ...

indigenous to the

mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher t ...

s south and east of the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Ro ...

, in

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

and the Russian

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range, have historicall ...

. It occurs at altitudes of 900–2,200 m on mountains with precipitation of over 1,000 mm. The current distribution of the Nordmann fir is associated with the

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

refugia that existed during the

Ice Age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gree ...

at the eastern and southern

coast. In spite of currently suitable

climate Climate is the long-term weather pattern in an area, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteorologi ...

, the species is not found in areas of the Eastern

Greater Caucasus The Greater Caucasus ( az, Böyük Qafqaz, Бөјүк Гафгаз, بيوک قافقاز; ka, დიდი კავკასიონი, ''Didi K’avk’asioni''; russian: Большой Кавказ, ''Bolshoy Kavkaz'', sometimes translat ...

, which are separated from the Black Sea Coast by more than 400–500 km.

Description

It is a large

evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has foliage that remains green and functional through more than one growing season. This also pertains to plants that retain their foliage only in warm climates, and contrasts with deciduous plants, which ...

conifer Conifers are a group of cone-bearing seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single extant class, Pinopsida. All ex ...

ous

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that ar ...

growing to 55–61 m tall and with a trunk

diameter In geometry, a diameter of a circle is any straight line segment that passes through the center of the circle and whose endpoints lie on the circle. It can also be defined as the longest chord of the circle. Both definitions are also valid ...

of up to 2 m. In the

Western Caucasus The Western Caucasus is a western region of the Caucasus in Southern Russia, extending from the Black Sea to Mount Elbrus. World Heritage Site The Western Caucasus includes a natural UNESCO World Heritage Site comprising the extreme western e ...

Reserve, some specimens have been reported to be and even tall, the tallest

s in the

Anatolia Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...

, the

Russian Federation Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eight ...

and the continent of Europe. The

leaves A leaf ( : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, ste ...

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

seed A seed is an embryonic plant enclosed in a protective outer covering, along with a food reserve. The formation of the seed is a part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, the spermatophytes, including the gymnosperm and angiospe ...

s; they disintegrate when mature to release the seeds.

Taxonomy

The species is named by Christian von Steven after his compatriot, the Finnish zoologist

Alexander von Nordmann Alexander von Nordmann (24 May 1803 in Ruotsinsalmi (now Kotka), Finland – 25 June 1866 in Helsinki) was a 19th-century Finnish biologist, who contributed to zoology, parasitology, botany and paleontology.Leikola A (2001Nordmann, Alexander v ...

(1803–1866), who was the director of the

Odessa Botanical Garden Odesa Botanical Garden is a botanical garden in Odesa, Ukraine. It is subordinated to Odesa University and consists of two territories: old territory and new territory. History The Botanical Garden in Odesa was established in 1820, on the init ...

Subspecies

There are two subspecies (treated as distinct species by some botanists), intergrading where they meet in northern

at about 36°E longitude: * Caucasian fir (''Abies nordmanniana'' subsp. ''nordmanniana''). Native to the

mountains and eastern

Pontic Mountains The Pontic Mountains or Pontic Alps ( Turkish: ''Kuzey Anadolu Dağları'', meaning North Anatolian Mountains) form a mountain range in northern Anatolia, Turkey. They are also known as the ''Parhar Mountains'' in the local Turkish and Pontic Gr ...

of northeastern Turkey west to about 36°E. Shoots often pubescent (hairy). * Turkish fir ( ''Abies nordmanniana'' subsp. ''equi-trojani''). Native to northwestern Turkey, including the western Pontic Mountains as well as

Uludağ Uludağ (), the ancient Mysian or Bithynian Olympus (Greek: Όλυμπος), is a mountain in Bursa Province, Turkey, with an elevation of . In Turkish, ''Uludağ'' means "great mountain". In ancient times the range of which it is a part, ext ...

and other mountains southeast of the

Sea of Marmara The Sea of Marmara,; grc, Προποντίς, Προποντίδα, Propontís, Propontída also known as the Marmara Sea, is an inland sea located entirely within the borders of Turkey. It connects the Black Sea to the Aegean Sea via the B ...

. Often treated as a separate species, ''Abies bornmuelleriana''.Kaya, Zeki, A. Skaggs, David Brian Neale (2008). "Genetic Differentiation of Abies equi-trojani (Asch. & Sint. ex Boiss) Mattf. Populations from Kazdağı, Turkey and the Genetic Relationship between Turkish Firs belonging to the Abies nordmanniana Spach Complex". ''Turkish Journal of Botany'' 32 (2008) 1-10 In Turkey this subspecies is treated as a distinct species (''Abies equi-trojani'' Asch. & Sint. ex Bois.). It is endemic to a single location on Kaz Dağı (Mount Ida) in

Balıkesir Province Balıkesir Province ( tr, ) is a province in northwestern Turkey with coastlines on both the Sea of Marmara and the Aegean. Its adjacent provinces are Çanakkale to the west, İzmir to the southwest, Manisa to the south, Kütahya to the south ...

, northwestern

. This subspecies occupies an area of only 164 km² and is assessed as "Endangered". Its shoots are usually glabrous (hairless).

Uses

The Nordmann fir is one of the most important species grown for

Christmas tree A Christmas tree is a decorated tree, usually an evergreen conifer, such as a spruce, pine or fir, or an artificial tree of similar appearance, associated with the celebration of Christmas. The custom was further developed in early modern G ...

s, being favoured for its attractive foliage, with needles that are not sharp and do not drop readily when the tree dries out. It is also a popular ornamental tree in

park A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are green spaces set aside for recreation inside towns and cities. ...

s and large

garden A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate both ...

s, and along with the

cultivar A cultivar is a type of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and when propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue culture, ...

'Golden Spreader' has gained the

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr ( ...

Award of Garden Merit The Award of Garden Merit (AGM) is a long-established annual award for plants by the British Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). It is based on assessment of the plants' performance under UK growing conditions. History The Award of Garden Merit ...

. In Europe, the tree has also been used for reforestation as a way to mitigate expected forest decline caused by climate changes. The

wood Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin ...

is soft and white, and is used for general construction,

paper Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, rags, grasses or other vegetable sources in water, draining the water through fine mesh leaving the fibre evenly distribut ...

, etc.

Gallery

Abies_nordmanniana_bark_and_trunk.JPG, bark and trunk in Munich botanical garden Nordmann-01.jpeg, Christmas tree production Abies nordmanniana.jpg, Foliage

References

External links

theplantlist.org: ''Abies nordmanniana'' (Steven) Spach
*
iucnredlist.org: ''Abies nordmanniana'' ssp. ''nordmanniana''
*
Gymnosperm Database: ''Abies nordmanniana''

conifersaroundtheworld.com: ''Abies nordmanniana'' NBG Belgium Meise

rhs.org.uk: ''Abies nordmanniana''

''Abies nordmanniana''
Distribution map, genetic conservation units and related resources.

European Forest Genetic Resources Programme European Forest Genetic Resources Programme (EUFORGEN) is an international network that supports the conservation and sustainable use of forest genetic resources in Europe. The programme’s tasks include to coordinate and promote ''in situ'' an ...

(EUFORGEN) {{Authority control nordmanniana Least concern plants Ornamental trees Trees of Azerbaijan Trees of Georgia (country) Trees of Russia Trees of Turkey Natural history of Anatolia