Pacific Silver Fir, Abies amabilis

About Pacific Silver Fir (Abies amabilis) 0 Nurseries Carry This Plant

Add to My Plant List

Pacific Silver Fir is native to the Pacific Northwest of North America, occurring in the Pacific Coast Ranges and the Cascade Range from the extreme southeast of Alaska, through western British Columbia, Washington and Oregon, to the extreme northwest of California. It grows at altitudes of sea level to 1,500 meters in the north of the range, and 1,000-2,300 meters in the south of the range, always in temperate rain forest with relatively high precipitation and cool, humid summers. Common associate trees are Douglas fir and California buckeye. It is a large evergreen coniferous tree growing to 30-45 meters (exceptionally 72 meters) tall and with a trunk diameter of up to 1.2 meters (exceptionally 2.3 meters). The bark on younger trees is light grey, thin and covered with resin blisters. On older trees, it darkens and develops scales and furrows. The leaves are needle-like, flattened, 2-4.5 centimeters long and 2 millimeters wide by 0.5 millimeters thick, matt dark green above, and with two white bands of stomata below, and slightly notched at the tip. The leaf arrangement is spiral on the shoot, but with each leaf variably twisted at the base so they lie flat to either side of and above the shoot, with none below the shoot. The shoots are orange-red with dense velvety fine hair. The cones are 9-17 centimeters long and 4-6 centimeters broad, dark purple before maturity; the scale leafs are short, and hidden in the closed cone. The winged seeds are released when the cones disintegrate at maturity about 6-7 months after pollination.

Plant Description

Plant Type

Tree

Size

20 - 236.2 ft tall
20 - 50 ft wide

Form

Pyramidal

Growth Rate

Slow

Dormancy

Evergreen

Fragrance

Fragrant - Pleasant

Flowering Season

Spring

Wildlife Supported

Butterflies & moths hosted ( 19 confirmed

, 10 likely * ) SHOW ALL

Brown-lined Looper Neoalcis californiariaNeoalcis californiaria

Silver-spotted Tiger Moth Lophocampa argentataLophocampa argentata

Western Carpet Melanolophia imitataMelanolophia imitata

Mottled Gray Carpet Cladara limitariaCladara limitaria

The Small Engrailed Ectropis crepusculariaEctropis crepuscularia

Douglas-Fir Cone Moth Barbara colfaxianaBarbara colfaxiana

Variable Girdle Moth Enypia venataEnypia venata

Landscaping Information

Sun

Full Sun

Summer Irrigation

Keep moist

Soil Description

Adaptable, tolerant of sand, loam and clay. Soil PH: 3 - 35

Companion Plants

Douglas fir and California Buckeye

Natural Setting

Site Type

Temperate Rain Forests

Climate

Annual Precipitation: 31.5" - 100.0", Summer Precipitation: 0.69" - 3.60", Coldest Month: 33.3" - 45.9", Hottest Month: 51.9" - 70.5", Humidity: 0.14" - 21.35", Elevation: 99" - 7171"

Alternative Names

Common Names: Cascade Fir, Lovely Fir, Red Fir, White Fir

Print Plant Sign Print Plant Label

Sources include: Wikipedia. All text shown in the "About" section of these pages is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Plant observation data provided by the participants of the California Consortia of Herbaria, Sunset information provided by Jepson Flora Project. Propogation from seed information provided by the Santa Barbara Botanical Garden from "Seed Propagation of Native California Plants" by Dara E. Emery. Sources of plant photos include CalPhotos, Wikimedia Commons, and independent plant photographers who have agreed to share their images with Calscape. Other general sources of information include Calflora, CNPS Manual of Vegetation Online, Jepson Flora Project, Las Pilitas, Theodore Payne, Tree of Life, The Xerces Society, and information provided by CNPS volunteer editors, with special thanks to Don Rideout. Climate data used in creation of plant range maps is from PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University, using 30 year (1981-2010) annual "normals" at an 800 meter spatial resolution.

Links: Jepson eFlora Taxon Page CalPhotos Wikipedia Calflora

Pacific Silver Fir

Abies amabilis

Sign in to your Calscape Account X

Pacific Silver FirAbies amabilis

Sign in to your Calscape Account X

Pacific Silver Fir

Abies amabilis