Scientific name: Abies nephrolepis  (Trautvetter) Maximowicz  1866

Synonyms: Abies koreana f. prostrata Kolesn., Abies nephrolepis f. chlorocarpa E.H. Wilson, Abies sibirica Korsh., Abies sibirica var. nephrolepis Trautv. ex Maxim., Abies sibiriconephrolepis Taken. & J.J. Chien, Abies veitchii var. nephrolepis (Trautv. ex Maxim.) Mast., Abies yoneyamae Soto, Pinus nephrolepis (Trautv. ex Maxim.) Voss

Common names: Manchurian fir, Hinggan fir, Amur fir, Khinghan fir, Siberian whitebark fir, Pikhta amurskaya (Russian), Chou lengshan (Chinese), Punbi namu (Korean)

Description

Tree to 25(-35) m tall, with trunk to 0.8(-1.2) m in diameter. Bark pale gray, eventually becoming shallowly fissured. Branchlets with a few to many dark hairs in the shallow grooves between the leaf bases. Buds 4-5 mm long, thinly resinous mostly at the tip. Needles angled forward, arranged to the sides and above the twigs, (1-)1.5-2(-3) cm long, shiny bright green above, the tips pointed on cone-bearing shoots, otherwise shallowly notched. Individual needles flat in cross section with the edges rolled down and with a resin canal closer to the top than the bottom of either side, often with two or three short lines of stomates in the groove above near the tip and with 8-10 lines in each grayish white stomatal band beneath. Pollen cones 35-45 mm long, reddish purple. Seed cones elongate egg-shaped to cylindrical, (4-)5-7.5(-9.5) cm long, (1.5-)2-3(-3.5) cm in diameter, reddish purple (or green) when young, maturing purplish brown. Bracts a little shorter than the fuzzy, kidney-shaped seed scales (hence the scientific name, “kidney scale”) but with a long, slender tip that sticks out between the scales without bending back down over them. Persistent cone axis narrowly conical. Seed body 4-6 mm long, the wing almost as long. Cotyledons four or five.

Southeastern Russian Far East east of the Uda River, south to Shanxi province (China) and North Cholla province (South Korea), very discontinuous south of Russia. Forming pure stands or scattered among other conifers and deciduous hardwoods in wet areas on well-drained mountain soils; (300-)700-2,100 m.

Conservation Status

Red List Category & Criteria: Least Concern

Varieties:

Abies nephrolepis ’Elegans’  
Abies nephrolepis ’Mr. Vitamvas’  
Abies nephrolepis ’Nada’   
Abies nephrolepis ’Variegated’
Abies nephrolepis ’Velislava’

Attribution from: Conifers Garden