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Scientific name: Abies forrestii var. georgei (Orr) Farjon 1990
Synonyms: Abies delavayi var. georgei (Orr) Melville, Abies georgei Orr, Abies georgei subsp. wumongensis Silba
Common names: George's fir (English), Changbao Lengshan (Chinese)
Tree to 30(-40) m tall, with trunk to 1(-1.5) m in diameter. Bark gray, reddening and becoming fissured with age. Branchlets densely (often reddish) hairy. The twigs of this variety are reddish brown or dark brown in their first year, densely rusty brown pubescent, with the cone bract apex acuminate or cuspidate, usually exserted and reflexed. Buds 4-10 mm long, thickly coated with white to yellowish resin. Needles arranged to the sides in several rows and also rising above the twigs and angled forward to cover them, 1,5 -3 cm long, shiny dark green to bluish green above, the tip usually notched but sometimes bluntly to sharply pointed. Individual needles flat or a little plump in cross section and with a resin canal on either side touching the lower epidermis. Pollen cones 20-35 mm long, purple. Seed cones elongate egg-shaped to cylindrical, 5-8 cm long, 3-4cm across, dark purple when young, maturing purplish or blackish brown. Bracts of seed cones exserted, broad and gradually tapering to a short cusp, with erose-denticulate, light brown margins. Persistent cone axis broadly conical or swollen in the middle. Seed body 7-10 mm long, the wing about as long.
Matthew Orr (1883 - 1953) published the name Abies georgei in 1933, based on material George Forrest (1873 - 1932) had collected on the Jinsha-Mekong divide in Yunnan in 1922. It remained a widely accepted species until c. 1990 when Farjon reduced it to a variety of Abies forrestii (Abies forrestii var. georgei). Chinese taxonomists refer to this taxon as a species (Abies georgei).
Endemic to China: SW Sichuan, NW Yunnan, and SE Xizang (Tibet); 3,000-4,500 m.
Red List Category & Criteria: Least Concern
The assessment of Least Concern is based on an estimated extent of occurrence (EOO) of about 120,000 km², more than 10 locations known and insufficient decline over the last three generations. There is some uncertainty about its distribution and the EOO may be an overestimate.
The status of the populations of this variety are uncertain due to problems with identification but it is very likely that there has been some recent decline due to past logging.
Grows in subalpine forests at altitudes between 3,000 and 4,500 m asl. Timber can be used for construction or pulp.
The Government of China has recently imposed a logging ban in western China.
Copyright © Aljos Farjon, James E. Eckenwalder, IUCN, Conifers Garden. All rights reserved.
