''Abies magnifica'', the red fir or silvertip fir, is a western

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

n fir, native to the mountains of southwest

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

and

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. It is a high-elevation tree, typically occurring at elevation, though only rarely reaching

tree line The tree line is the edge of the habitat at which trees are capable of growing. It is found at high elevations and high latitudes. Beyond the tree line, trees cannot tolerate the environmental conditions (usually cold temperatures, extreme snowp ...

. The name red fir derives from the bark color of old trees.

Description

''Abies magnifica'' 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 ...

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 are ...

typically up to tall and trunk diameter, rarely to tall and diameter, with a narrow conic crown. The bark on young trees is smooth, grey, and has

resin In polymer chemistry and materials science, resin is a solid or highly viscous substance of plant or synthetic origin that is typically convertible into polymers. Resins are usually mixtures of organic compounds. This article focuses on natu ...

blisters, becoming orange-red, rough and fissured on old trees. The

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

are needle-like, long, glaucous blue-green above and below with strong stomatal bands, and an acute tip. They are arranged spirally on the shoot, but twisted slightly S-shaped to be upcurved above the shoot. The

cones A cone is a three-dimensional geometric shape that tapers smoothly from a flat base (frequently, though not necessarily, circular) to a point called the apex or vertex. A cone is formed by a set of line segments, half-lines, or lines conn ...

are erect, long, yellow-green (occasionally purple), ripening brown and disintegrating to release the 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 in fall.

Varieties

There are two, perhaps three varieties: * ''Abies magnifica'' var. ''magnifica'', red fir – cones long, bract scales short, not visible on the closed cones. Most of the species' range, primarily in the

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada () is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primarily ...

. * ''Abies magnifica'' var. ''shastensis'', Shasta red fir – cones long, bract scales longer, visible on the closed cone; bark thick. The northwest of the species' range, in southwest Oregon and Shasta, Siskiyou and

Trinity The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God the F ...

Counties in northwest California. * ''A. magnifica'' on the eastern slopes of southern Sierra Nevada – possibly a third variety, have not been formally named, also having long bracts, and additionally have smaller cones, long.

Red fir is very closely related to ''

Abies procera ''Abies procera'', the noble fir, also called red fir and Christmas tree, is a species of fir native to the Cascade Range and Pacific Coast Ranges of the northwestern Pacific Coast of the United States. It occurs at altitudes of . Description ' ...

(''noble fir), which replaces it further north in the

Cascade Range The Cascade Range or Cascades is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as the North Cascades, ...

. They are best distinguished by the leaves; noble fir leaves have a groove along the midrib on the upper side, while 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. Shasta red fir hybridizes with noble fir, with which it is both chemically and microscopically similar; some botanists treat the former as a natural hybrid between red and noble fir.

First recording

This tree was first recorded by

William Lobb William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

on his expedition to California of 1849–1853, having been overlooked previously by David Douglas.

Uses

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 th ...

is used for general structural purposes and

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 distributed ...

manufacture. It is also a popular

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 ...

. Paiute peoples used the foliage of Shasta red fir (or perhaps noble fir) to treat coughs and colds.

References

External links

USDA Forest Service: ''Abies magnifica''

CalFlora Database: ''Abies magnifica''

* ttp://www.pinetum.org/PhotoJEFFshastensis2.htm Arboretum de Villardebelle: ''Abies magnifica'' Photos – ''group 2'' {{Taxonbar, from=Q1290204 magnifica Trees of the Northwestern United States Flora of California Flora of Nevada Flora of Oregon Flora of the Sierra Nevada (United States) Flora of the Cascade Range Flora of the Klamath Mountains Natural history of Siskiyou County, California Trees of North America Trees of the Western United States Trees of the West Coast of the United States Trees of the United States

Description

Varieties

Related

First recording

Uses

See also

References

Further reading

External links