Silver fir (abies alba miller)
Appearance: An evergreen coniferous tree with a trunk usually strong and straight. It can reach a height of approx 50 meters, The highest fir in Poland grows in the reserve near Nawojowa in Beskid Sądecki and has 44 m in height. The crown of young trees is conical, quite regular, in the elders, it is flattened at the top – unlike the closely related spruce.
Older branches depart from the trunk almost horizontally. At the top, branches and smaller twigs point diagonally upward. In free-standing trees, their trunks have branches all the way to the base. Smooth bark, dark gray, with age, more and more furrowed or rectangularly cracked, often – especially on younger trees with resin bubbles. Young branches hairy, leading shoots slightly shiny. Red-brown donuts, oval, no resin. The high heels are quite short, at most to 3 cm in length, front blunt, pliable, with two lighter stripes underneath, set loosely, two-sided, though not in a row, dark green on top. Monoecious tree. Male spherical flowers, yellowish, at the ends of the twigs in the groins of the pins,
Female cones usually approx 10 cm, sometimes even longer, straightened, walcowate, greenish at first, later orange-brown, when they mature – pale brown. The scales fall off one by one on the tree; therefore there are never cones under the fir trees.
Habitat: Important forest tree, together with the beech, pine and spruce trees often form stands in areas, located from 200 do 1000 m n.p.m. (in the Tatras to 1400 m n.p.m.) on fresh soils, cool, medium-deep. Occurrence: Typical in coniferous forests, mainly in Central Europe, in France, in Corsica and in the mountains of the Balkan Peninsula.
Flowering period: April to May.
General thoughts: The domestic silver fir is planted in gardens and parks much less often than other species of the same genus. Individual trees can reach amazing sizes, and at the same time live to an age 200 and even 300 lal.
Fir trees are just as sensitive as spruce trees to industrial gaseous pollutants and acid rain. In recent years, significant damages have been observed in natural fir stands,