Abies spectabilis
Scientific name: Abies spectabilis (D.Don) Mirbel 1825
Synonyms: Abies brevifolia (A.Henry) Dallim., Abies chilrowensis Parl., Abies spectabilis (D. Don) Spach, Abies webbiana (Wall. ex D.Don) Lindl., Picea naphta Knight, Picea webbiana (Wall. ex D.Don) Loudon, Pinus spectabilis D.Don, Pinus striata Buch.-Ham. ex Gord., Pinus tinctoria Wall. ex D.Don, Pinus webbiana Wall. ex D.Don
Common names: Webb fir, Himalayan fir, Himalayan silver fir (English), Badar (Kashmiri), Gobrasalla (Nepalese)
Description
Tree to 40(-60) m tall, with trunk to 2(-3) m in diameter, but often much smaller at high elevations. Bark silvery gray, darkening and becoming ridged and furrowed with age. Young branchlets densely dark-hairy in the deep grooves between the leaf bases but soon shedding the hairs. Buds 4.5-6(-10) mm long, covered with brownish resin. Needles arranged in several rows straight out to the sides and others forward above the twigs, the different rows of different lengths, 1.5-4(-6.5) cm long, shiny deep green above, the tips generally strongly notched to forked. Individual needles flat in cross section and with a resin canal on either side near the edge, touching the lower epidermis, without stomates above and with 7-15 lines of stomates in each silvery white stomatal band beneath. Pollen cones barrel-shaped, 7-15(-20) cm long, 4-7 cm across, dark violet when young, maturing purplish brown. Bracts half as long as the seed sales and hidden by them. Persistent cone axis narrowly conical. Seed body 9-11 mm long, the wing about as long. Cotyledons four to six.
Cotyledons four to six. Western Himalaya from northeastern Afghanistan to Nepal and adjacent China in Xizang (Tibet). Forming pure stands or mixed with other conifers, including pindrow fir (Abies pindrow), and hardwoods in the subalpine forest; (1,600-)2,100-3,800(-4,300) m.
Conservation Status
Red List Category & Criteria: Near Threatened
Varieties:-
Attribution from: Conifers Garden