Abies procera |
Pinaceae |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
noble fir |
pine family |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
Habit | Trees to 80m; trunk to 2.2m diam.; crown spirelike. | Trees (occasionally shrubs), evergreen (annually deciduous in Larix), resinous and aromatic, monoecious. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Roots | fibrous to woody, unspecialized. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bark | grayish brown, in age becoming thick and deeply furrowed (furrows and ridges about same width) and reddish brown (especially reddish when plates flake off). |
smooth to scaly or furrowed. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
Branches | diverging from trunk at right angles, stiff; twigs reddish brown, finely pubescent for several years. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
Lateral branches | well developed and similar to leading (long) shoots or reduced to well-defined short (spur) shoots (Pinus, Larix); twigs terete, sometimes clothed by persistent primary leaves or leaf bases; longest internodes less than 1cm; buds conspicuous. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
Buds | hidden by leaves, tan, ovoid, small, not resinous, apex rounded; basal scales short, broad, equilaterally triangular, pubescent centrally, not resinous, margins entire to crenate, apex sharp-pointed. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
Leaves | 1–3(–3.5)cm × 1.5–2mm, 1-ranked, flexible, proximal portion often appressed to twig for 2–3mm (best seen on abaxial surface of twig), distal portion divergent; cross section flat, with prominent raised midrib abaxially, with or without groove adaxially, or cross section 4-sided on fertile branches; odor pungent, faintly turpentinelike; abaxial surface with 2–4 glaucous bands, each band with (4–)6–7 stomatal rows; adaxial surface bluish green, with 0–2 glaucous bands, each band with 0–7 stomatal rows at midleaf; apex rounded to notched; leaves on fertile branches 4-sided with 4 bands of stomates below; resin canals small, near margins and abaxial epidermal layer. |
(needles) simple, shed singly (except whole fascicles shed in Pinus), alternate and spirally arranged but sometimes proximally twisted so as to appear 1- or 2-ranked, or fascicled, linear to needlelike, sessile to short-petiolate; foliage leaves either borne singly (spirally) on long shoots or in tufts (fascicles) on short shoots; juvenile leaves (when present) borne on long shoots, scalelike; resin canals present. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pollen cones | at pollination ± purple, ± red, or reddish brown. |
maturing and shed annually, solitary or clustered, axillary, ovoid to ellipsoid or cylindric; sporophylls overlapping, bearing 2 abaxial microsporangia (pollen sacs); pollen spheric, 2-winged, less commonly with wings reduced to frill (in Tsuga sect. Tsuga), or not winged (in Larix and Pseudotsuga). |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
Seed(s) | cones oblong-cylindric, 10–15 × 5–6.5cm, green, red, or purple, overlaid with green bracts, at maturity brown (bracts light-colored and scales dark), sessile, apex rounded; scales ca. 2.5 × 3cm, pubescent; bracts exserted and reflexed over scales. |
cones maturing and shed in 1–3 seasons or long-persistent, sometimes serotinous (not opening upon maturity but much later: Pinus), compound, axillary, solitary or grouped; scales overlapping, free from subtending included or exserted bracts for most of length, spirally arranged, strongly flattened, at maturity relatively thin to strongly thickened and woody (in Pinus), with 2 inverted, adaxial ovules. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
2n | =24. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
Abies procera |
Pinaceae |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
Habitat | Mixed coniferous forests | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Elevation | 60–2700m (200–8900ft) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Distribution |
CA; OR; WA
|
Almost entirely in the Northern Hemisphere |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
Discussion | See discussion under Abies magnifica. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
The Pinaceae, with a fossil record extending back to the Cretaceous (C.N. Miller Jr. 1988), constitute a clearly defined natural taxon, the basic delimiting features of which are seen in the mature seed cones: bract-scale complexes consisting of well-developed scales that are free for most of their length from the subtending bracts, two inverted ovules on the adaxial face of each scale, and usually an obvious seed wing that develops from the cone scale. The 10 genera, too, are clearly defined. The cones of certain members of the Pinaceae remain on the tree and closed for several to many years until a stimulus (often fire) causes them to open and shed their seeds. This condition, known as serotiny (adjective, serotinous), is seen in various pines (e.g., Pinus attenuata, P. banksiana, P. contorta). This primarily Northern Hemisphere family extends south to the West Indies, Central America, Japan, China, Indonesia, the Himalayas, and North Africa. The family is dominant in the vegetation of large regions including, in the flora area, forests of the boreal and Pacific regions, of the western mountains, and of the southeastern coastal plain. Only one species of the family, Pinus merkusii, crosses the equator (in Sumatra). Members of the Pinaceae are of major economic importance as producers of most of the world's softwood timber. Additionally, they are sources of pulpwood, naval stores (e.g., tar, pitch, turpentine, etc.), essential oils, and other forest products. All members of the family present in the flora, especially pines, are of varying importance to wildlife for food and cover. Many species, including most of the genera, are grown as ornamentals and shelter-belt trees and for revegetation. Most commonly seen in cultivation in the flora area are species of Abies, Cedrus, Larix, Picea, Pinus, Pseudotsuga, and Tsuga, each of these genera being represented by numerous cultivars. Keteleeria and Pseudolarix are mainly botanical garden subjects. Cathaya, the most recently described genus (1958), is apparently not yet in cultivation in North America. Among the vegetative features useful for identification of some genera of Pinaceae are the leaf scars. These are best observed on those portions of living branchlets from which leaves have fallen. Genera 10, species ca. 200 (6 genera, 66 species in the flora with 64 natives and 2 naturalized). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
Key |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
Source | FNA vol. 2. | FNA vol. 2, p. 352. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Pinaceae > Abies | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Synonyms | A. nobilis | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Name authority | Rehder: Rhodora 42: 522. (1940) | Lindley | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Web links |
|
|