''Abies chensiensis'', the Shensi fir, is a

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

native to

Gansu Gansu (, ; alternately romanized as Kansu) is a province in Northwest China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeast part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibet ...

Hubei Hubei (; ; alternately Hupeh) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, and is part of the Central China region. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Dongting Lake. The prov ...

Sichuan Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the ...

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...

Yunnan Yunnan , () is a landlocked Provinces of China, province in Southwest China, the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, and

Arunachal Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh (, ) is a state in Northeastern India. It was formed from the erstwhile North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) region, and became a state on 20 February 1987. It borders the states of Assam and Nagaland to the south. It shares int ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. It was first described by

Philippe Édouard Léon Van Tieghem Philippe Édouard Léon Van Tieghem (; 19 April 1839 – 28 April 1914) was a French botanist born in Baillleul in the département of Nord. He was one of the best known French botanists of the latter nineteenth century. Life Van Tieghem's f ...

in 1892.

Description

The Shensi fir is a straight-stemmed,

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, which can reach heights of up to and can have a

diameter at breast height Diameter at breast height, or DBH, is a standard method of expressing the diameter of the trunk or bole of a standing tree. DBH is one of the most common dendrometric measurements. Tree trunks are measured at the height of an adult's breast, ...

of up to .

Tallest tree

The tallest measured specimen is , with a

circumference In geometry, the circumference (from Latin ''circumferens'', meaning "carrying around") is the perimeter of a circle or ellipse. That is, the circumference would be the arc length of the circle, as if it were opened up and straightened out to ...

of of ''Abies chensiensis'' var. ''salouenensis'' variety, discovered at an altitude of around 2,300 meters in large

primeval forest An old-growth forestalso termed primary forest, virgin forest, late seral forest, primeval forest, or first-growth forestis a forest that has attained great age without significant disturbance, and thereby exhibits unique ecological featur ...

Zayü County Zayul County ()
KNAB, retrieved 5 July 2021. Tibet Autonomous Region The Tibet Autonomous Region or Xizang Autonomous Region, often shortened to Tibet or Xizang, is a Provinces of China, province-level Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People's Republic of China in Southwest China. I ...

in 2022 and according to the Institute of Botany of the Chinese Academy of Sciences it the tallest tree in the China.

Varieties and synonyms

''Abies chensiensis'' varieties and its synonyms: *''Abies chensiensis'' var. ''chensiensis'' *''Abies chensiensis'' var. ''ernestii'' (Rehder) Tang S.Liu **''Abies beissneriana'' Rehder & E.H.Wilson **''Abies ernestii'' Rehder **''Abies recurvata'' subsp. ''ernestii'' (Rehder) Silba **''Abies recurvata'' var. ''ernestii'' (Rehder) Rushforth *''Abies chensiensis'' var. ''salouenensis'' (Bordères & Gaussen) Silba **''Abies chensiensis'' subsp. ''salouenensis'' (Bordères & Gaussen) Rushforth **''Abies ernestii'' var. ''salouenensis'' (Bordères & Gaussen) W.C.Cheng & L.K.Fu **''Abies recurvata'' var. ''salouenensis'' (Bordères & Gaussen) C.T.Kuan **''Abies salouenensis'' Bordères & Gaussen *''Abies chensiensis'' var. ''yulongxueshanensis'' (Rushforth) Silba **''Abies chensiensis'' subsp. ''yulongxueshanensis'' Rushforth

Distribution

The natural distribution of the Shensi fir is roughly bounded to the north by the Chinese provinces of

Shaanxi Shaanxi (alternatively Shensi, see #Name, § Name) is a landlocked Provinces of China, province of China. Officially part of Northwest China, it borders the province-level divisions of Shanxi (NE, E), Henan (E), Hubei (SE), Chongqing (S), Sichu ...

and

, and to the south by the

province. It most commonly grows in heights of 2300 to 3000 metres in regions with an annual precipitation between 1000 and 2000 mm.

Uses

The soft, light

timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, wi ...

of the Shensi fir is finely grained, and is predominantly used as a construction material.

References