Red fir

Abies magnifica subsp. var.	Red fir, Silvertip fir
File:Abies magnifica 8016t.jpg	Habit: tree Height: ⇕ to Width: ⇔ to 80ft120ft 15ft20ft Height: ⇕ 80 ft to 120 ft Width: ⇔ 15 ft to 20 ft Lifespan: ⌛ perennial Origin: ✈ S Oregon to N California Poisonous: ☠ Bloom: ❀	Exposure: ☼ sun, part-sun Water: ◍ moist Features: ✓ evergreen, foliage Hidden fields, interally pass variables to right place Minimum Temp: ☃ °Fwarning.png"°F" is not a number. USDA Zones: 6 to 8 Sunset Zones: Flower features: ❀
	Pinaceae > Abies magnifica var. ,

The Red Fir or Silvertip fir (Abies magnifica) is a western North American fir, native to the mountains of southwest Oregon and California in the United States.

It is a large evergreen tree typically up to 40-60 m tall and 2 m trunk diameter, rarely to 76 m tall and 3 m diameter, with a narrow conic crown. The bark on young trees is smooth, grey, and with resin blisters, becoming orange-red, rough and fissured on old trees. The leaves are needle-like, 2-3.5 cm 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 are erect, 9-21 cm long, yellow-green (occasionally purple), ripening brown and disintegrating to release the winged seeds in fall.

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

Cultivation

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Propagation

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Pests and diseases

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Varieties

There are two, perhaps three varieties^wp:

• Abies magnifica var. magnifica (Red Fir) - cones large (14-21 cm), cone bract scales short, not visible on the closed cones. Most of the species' range, primarily in the Sierra Nevada^wp.
• Abies magnifica var. shastensis (Shasta Red Fir) - cones large (14-21 cm), cone bract scales longer, visible on the closed cone. The northwest of the species' range, in southwest Oregon and Shasta, Siskiyou and Trinity Counties in northwest California^wp.
• Trees on the eastern side of the southern Sierra Nevada also have long bracts, and additionally have smaller cones, 9-15 cm long. These trees, possibly a third variety, have not been formally named^wp.

Red Fir is very closely related to Noble Fir (Abies procera), which replaces it further north in the Cascade Range. 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. Some botanists treat Abies magnifica var. shastensis as a natural hybrid between Red Fir and Noble Fir^wp.

Gallery

• Abies magnifica 8009.jpg
• Abies magnifica Tahoe1.jpg
• Abies magnifica cone Tahoe1.jpg
• Upper montane veg zone in Yosemite.jpg

References

• American Horticultural Society: A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants, by Christopher Brickell, Judith D. Zuk. 1996. ISBN 0789419432

External links

• w:Red fir. Some of the material on this page may be from Wikipedia, under the Creative Commons license.
• Red fir QR Code (Size 50, 100, 200, 500)