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Scientific name: Abies concolor (Gordon & Glendinning) Hildebrand 1861
Synonyms: Abies concolor var. concolor, Picea concolor Gordon, Picea grandis Newb., Picea parsonsiana Barron, Picea parsonsii Fowler, Pinus concolor (Gordon) Parl.
Infraspecific taxa: Abies concolor var. lowiana (Gordon) Lemmon 1895
Common names: Concolor fir, Colorado fir, Colorado white fir, Silver fir, White fir, Rocky Mountain white fir
Tree to 60 m tall, with trunk to 2 m in diameter. Bark light gray, breaking up into dark gray ridges and reddish furrows with age. Branchlets hairless or with yellowish hairs at first, not grooved. Buds 3-5 mm long, resinous. Needles arranged to the sides on lower branches and also turned upward on branches with seed cones, (1.5-)2- 6(-7) cm long, light green or bluish green with wax both above and beneath (hence the scientific name, “same color”), the tips rounded or shallowly notched. Individual needles fairly flat to almost round in cross section and with a resin canal on either side near the edge just inside the lower epidermis, with (5-)7-12(-18) rows of stomates above (fewer toward the tip) and four to eight rows in each stomatal band beneath. Pollen cones (6-)12-20 mm long, dark red. Seed cones roughly cylindrical, 6-13 cm long, 3-4.5 cm across, green, grayish green, or dull purple when young, maturing light brown. Bracts less than half as long as the seed scales and hidden by them. Persistent cone axis narrowly conical. Seeds body 6-12 mm long, the wing up to 1.5 times as long. Cotyledons (five or) six or seven (to nine).
Widespread through the mountains of southwestern North America, from central Oregon, southeastern Idaho, and central Colorado, south to northeastern Sonora and northern Baja California (Mexico). Growing with various other conifers in different parts of its range; (600-)900-3,000(-3,500) m.
Red List Category & Criteria: Least Concern
Abies concolor is an extremely widespread species that occurs in numerous locations throughout much of the mountainous western North America and, more scattered, into Mexico. Whilst undoubtedly logged in past and present, this has little impact on the total population. It is therefore assessed as Least Concern.
Abies concolor occurs in the Transition and Canadian Life Zones of high mountains, often restricted to north-facing slopes, at elevations between 600 to 3,000 m in the western part of its range, from 1,800 m to 3,350 m a.s.l. in the Rocky Mountains. It grows in a variety of mountain soils on granitic or basaltic rocks or occasionally sandstone. The climate is moderately humid (500 to 1,875 mm annual precipitation), with relatively warm and dry summers and cold winters. It grows in pure stands, or mixed with various other conifers, e.g. Pinus spp., Abies magnifica, Abies procera, Abies grandis, Pseudotsuga menziesii var. glauca, and also with Populus tremuloides.
White fir provides timber for general construction applications and plywood; its market value has improved in recent decades relative to other species of fir. In California it is grown for Christmas trees in plantations or harvested from natural regeneration in forests managed for timber production. The natural variation in leaf colour from green (recognized as var. lowiana in horticulture) to glaucous green can be enhanced by selection and has been used both in the Christmas tree trade and in horticulture. A number of cultivars, including dwarfed forms, are commonly used in gardens.
This species is known from many protected areas throughout its range.
Abies concolor ’Albospica’ Abies concolor ’Archer’s Dwarf’ Abies concolor ’Argentea’ Abies concolor ’Asbury’ Abies concolor ’Aurea’ Abies concolor ’Bables Weeping’ Abies concolor ’Bella’ Abies concolor ’Birthday Broom’ Abies concolor ’Blue Cloak’ Abies concolor ’Blue Saphir’ Abies concolor ’Bogy Woogy’ Abies concolor ’Brady’ Abies concolor ’Breburda’ Abies concolor ’Brevifolia’ Abies concolor ’Bryce Canyon’ Abies concolor ’Bugy Wugy’ Abies concolor ’Butzii’ Abies concolor ’Camache’ Abies concolor ’Candicans’ Abies concolor ’Candicans Pygmy’ Abies concolor ’Černošice’ Abies concolor ’Cesta’ Abies concolor ’Cha Cha’ Abies concolor ’Charlie’s Broom’ Abies concolor ’Charming Chub’ Abies concolor ’Cihelna’ Abies concolor ’Cimarron’ Abies concolor ’Clinton’ Abies concolor ’Compacta’ Abies concolor ’Conica’ Abies concolor ’Creamy’ Abies concolor ’Dĕčín’ Abies concolor ’Dr. Kochlein’s Seedling’ Abies concolor ’Elkins’s Weeper’ Abies concolor ’Fagerhult’ Abies concolor ’Falcata’ Abies concolor ’Fastigiata’ Abies concolor ’Frosty’ Abies concolor ’Gable’s Weeping’ Abies concolor ’Glauca’ Abies concolor ’Glauca Compacta’ Abies concolor ’Glenmore’ Abies concolor ’Globosa’ Abies concolor ’Green Globe’ Abies concolor ’Hexe’ Abies concolor ’Husky Pup’ Abies concolor ’Igel’ Abies concolor ’Izabela’ Abies concolor ’Jack’ Abies concolor ’Jerry Morris’ Abies concolor ’Keith’s Blue’ Abies concolor ’Kelleriis’ Abies concolor ’Kingsley’ Abies concolor ’Kinky’ Abies concolor ’Knollwood’ Abies concolor ’La Veta’ Abies concolor ’Lareta’ Abies concolor ’Layne Davis’ Abies concolor ’Little Wedge’ Abies concolor ’Masonic Broom’ Abies concolor ’Marquette Conica’ Abies concolor ’Mora’ Abies concolor ’Morton’ Abies concolor ’Nana’ Abies concolor ’Olcott’ Abies concolor ’Olson’ Abies concolor ’Pendens’ Abies concolor ’Pendula’ Abies concolor ’Piedra’ Abies concolor ’Piggelmee’ Abies concolor ’Pineola Dwarf’ Abies concolor ’Procumbens’ Abies concolor ’Pyramidalis’ Abies concolor ’Recurva’ Abies concolor ’Rochester’ Abies concolor ’Rockford’ Abies concolor ’Sassy’ Abies concolor ’Schrammii’ Abies concolor ’Scooter’ Abies concolor ’Select Blue’ Abies concolor ’Sherwood Blue’ Abies concolor ’Sipapu’ Abies concolor ’Slama’ Abies concolor ’Stanwood’ Abies concolor ’Vanilla Ice’ Abies concolor ’Variegata’ Abies concolor ’Verdener Dom’ Abies concolor ’Violaceae’ Abies concolor ’Wattezii’ Abies concolor ’Wattezii Prostrate’ Abies concolor ’Wintergold’ Abies concolor ’Zlín’ Abies concolor ’Z-mark’
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