Abies fargesii var. faxoniana - Faxon fir description

Scientific name: Abies fargesii var. faxoniana (Rehder & E.H.Wilson) Tang S.Liu 1972

Synonyms: Abies delavayi var. faxoniana (Rehder & Wilson) A.B. Jackson, Abies fargesii subsp. faxoniana (Rehder & E.H.Wilson) Silba, Abies faxoniana Rehder & E.H.Wilson

Common names: Faxon fir, Minjiang Lengshan (Chinese)

Description

Tree to 40 m tall, with trunk to 2 m in diameter. Bark gray, flaking, darkening, browning and finally breaking into deep ridges and furrows with age. Branchlets covered with reddish hairs except on main branches. New shoots densely pubescent with ferruginous short hairs; buds 4-5 cm long, 4 mm wide. Needles arranged to  the sides of the twigs in several rows, the upper rows shorter and bent up above the twigs on branches bearing seed cones, 1-2.5(-4.5) cm long, shiny bright green to dark green above, the tips usually notched, but sometimes blunt or pointed. Individual needles flat in cross section and with a modest to large resin canal on either side (usually) away from the lower epidermis and also well in from the leaf margins, the margins sometimes slightly rolled under, sometimes with a few short lines of stomates in the groove above near the tip and with 8-12 lines of stomates in each greenish white to silvery stomatal band beneath. Pollen cones 10-15 mm long, red. Seed cones elongate egg-shaped to cylindrical, (3-)5-9(-10) cm long, 3-4.5 cm across, violet when young, maturing purplish or reddish brown. Bracts sticking out slightly between the seed scales. Persistent cone axis swollen in the middle. Seed body 5-8 mm long the wing about as long. Seeds light brown, wings pale, tinged purple. Abies fargesii var. faxoniana can be distinguished by its densely hairy shoots that are often slightly paler than those of the type.

This rather weakly defined variety was first introduced from north west Sichuan by Ernest Henry Wilson (1876-1930) in 1910.

Southern Gansu, Sichuan, northwestern Yunnan (China), and southeastern Xizang (Tibet); 2,700-4,000 m

Conservation Status

Red List Category & Criteria: Vulnerable

Varieties: -

Attribution from: Conifers Garden