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The firs are large, stately conifers with single trunks, whorled branches and very symmetrical cone shaped habits. Firs can be distinguished from other conifers by the combination of flat needles which are whitish beneath, and upright cones which stay on the tree and disintegrate after the seeds have been shed, leaving behind a single spikelike axis for a while. White fir has yellowish green first year branchlets, needles that are bluish green above, and rough, pale gray bark. The needles are about 2 in (5 cm) long with a pair of whitish bands on the underside. They appear to grow in two ranks on the branchlets, resulting in flattened sprays of foliage. The upright cones are cylindrical, about 5 in (13 cm) long and purplish green. White fir can get over 100 ft (30.5 m) tall and its conical spirelike crown becomes more columnar with age. Young trees are usually branched to the base, but large specimens are often devoid of branches for a third of their height. In cultivation, expect white firs to get 40-60 ft (12-18 m) tall. This is a very popular ornamental conifer and quite a few cultivars of varying habits and sizes have been named. 'Argentea' has silvery foliage. The new foliage of 'Aurea' is yellowish. 'Dwarf Globe' has thickly set bluish green needles and grows in a rounded mound just 3 ft (0.9 m) tall. 'Compacta' get about 4 ft (1.2 m) tall and wide and has beautiful grayish foliage. 'Pendula' has weeping branches. 'Fastigiata' is tall and narrow with erect branches. 'Violacea' has bright glaucus bluish white foliage. 'Wintergold' has foliage that turns yellow in winter.
White fir is native to high elevations in the mountains of Oregon and California and also to the Rocky Mountains from Idaho through Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico. They generally grow at elevations from 3000 to 9000 ft (914 to 2743 m) above sea level. In the Cascades, white fir grows in association with lodgepole pine, sugar pine and California red fir; in the Rockies it grows with Douglas-fir.
Culture
Usage The wood of white fir is very soft and coarse grained, and used mainly for paper pulp and shipping crates. Lacking a distinctive odor, the wood was formerly made into food containers (especially for butter) prior to the widespread use of plastics.
Plants that reproduce by seeds (as opposed to spores - like ferns and mosses) are divided into two main groups: the gymnosperms, ancient plants which lack flowers and bear naked seeds on bracts, and whose only living members are the cycads, the ginkgo and the conifers; and the angiosperms, which produce flowers and bear seeds enclosed in ovaries (fruits), and include all other seed bearing plants. The conifers are the most important members of the Gymnospermae still extant, although the group formerly dominated the landscape millions of years ago. Most conifers are needle-leaf evergreens (a few have scalelike leaves and a few are deciduous. (The term "conifer" does not quite coincide with the botanical order, Coniferales, which excludes some of the plants that most of us refer to as conifers.) See Floridata's Japanese black pine profile for a breakdown of the families of conifers, and the Norway spruce profile for how to identify the most common genera in the pine family. Steve Christman 2/7/01; updated 1/18/03
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