Manchurian Fir
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 Foliage on young tree
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| Abies holophylla Maxim. |
Manchurian Fir (Abies holophylla, zh: 杉松), also called Needle Fir, is a species of fir native to mountainous regions of northern Korea, southern Ussuriland, and China in the provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin, and Liaoning.
It is an evergreen coniferous tree growing to 30 m tall and 1 m in trunk diameter with a narrowly conical crown of horizontal spreading branches. The bark is scaly and gray-brown with resin blisters. The leaves ("needles") are flattened, 2-4 cm long and 1.5-2.5 mm thick, spread at right angles from the shoot, and end in a point. They are bright green above and whitish-green below with 7-10 stomatal bands. The shoots are glabrous, shiny yellow-gray when young and turning gray-brown. The cones are 12-14 cm long by 4-5 cm wide, yellow-brown, and slightly tapering with a bluntly rounded apex. The scale bracts are hidden under the cone scales. The seeds, 8-9 mm long with a wedge-shaped wing 1.5 cm long, are released after the cones disintegrate at maturity in October.
Manchurian Fir is sometimes, but not commonly, used as an ornamental plant.
[edit] References
- Conifer Specialist Group (1998). Abies holophylla. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 12 May 2006.
