Abies bracteata

Abies bracteata subsp. var.	Bristlecone Fir, Santa Lucia Fir
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	Pinaceae > Abies bracteata var. ,

The Bristlecone Fir or Santa Lucia Fir (Abies bracteata) is a rare fir, confined to slopes and the bottoms of rocky canyons in the Santa Lucia Mountains on the central coast of California, USA.

It is a tree 20-35 m tall, with a slender, spire-like form. The bark is reddish-brown with wrinkles, lines and resin vesicles ('blisters'). The branches are downswept. The needle-like leaves are arranged spirally on the shoot, but twisted at the base to spread either side of the shoot in two moderately forward-pointing ranks with a 'v' gap above the shoot; hard and stiff with a sharply pointed tip, 3.5-6 cm long and 2.5-3 mm broad, with two bright white stomatal bands on the underside. The cones are ovoid, 6-9 cm long (to 12 cm including the bracts), and differ from other firs in that the bracts end in very long, spreading, yellow-brown bristles 3-5 cm long; they disintegrate in autumn to release the winged seeds. The male (pollen) cones are 2 cm long, shedding pollen in spring.

A popular ornamental, it can be seen in many arboreta (Gymnosperm Database).

Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture
Lvs. acuminate, dark yellow, green above and silvery below: cones 4 in. long, with long, slender bracts. Calif. The above text is from the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture. It may be out of date, but still contains valuable and interesting information which can be incorporated into the remainder of the article. Click on "Collapse" in the header to hide this text.

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

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Gallery

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• Abies bracteata 2.jpg
• Abies bracteata - Lemaire.jpg
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References

• Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture, L.H. Bailey^CH

External links

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