Abies forrestii var. ferreana - Ferre’s fir description

Scientific name: Abies forrestii var. ferreana   (Bordères & Gaussen) Farjon & Silba  1990

Synonyms: Abies chayuensis W.C.Cheng & L.K.Fu, Abies ferreana Bordères & Gaussen, Abies forrestii subsp. chayuensis (W.C.Cheng & L.K.Fu) Silba, Abies forrestii var. chayuensis (W.C.Cheng & L.K.Fu) Silba, Abies forrestii subsp. ferreana (Bordères & Gaussen) Silba, Abies forrestii subsp. longibracteata (L.K.Fu & Nan Li) Silba, Abies rolii Bordères & Gaussen, Abies yuana Bordères & Gaussen

Common names: Ferre’s fir, Zhong dian leng shan (Chinese)

Description

Tree to 20(-30) m tall, with trunk to 1(-1.2) m in diameter. Bark gray, reddening and becoming fissured with age. Branchlets hairless to very fuzzy, especially in the shallow grooves between the leaf bases. The twigs of this variety are reddish brown or dark brown in their first year, densely rusty brown pubescent, with the cone bract apex acuminate or cuspidate, usually exserted and reflexed. Buds 4-10 mm long, thickly coated with white to yellowish resin. Needles arranged to the sides in several rows and also rising above the twigs and angled forward to cover them, 1 -2.5 cm long, shiny dark green to bluish green above, the tip usually notched but sometimes bluntly to sharply pointed. Individual needles flat or a little plump in cross section and with a resin canal on either side touching the lower epidermis. Pollen cones 20-35 mm long, purple. Seed cones elongate egg-shaped to cylindrical, 5-8 cm long, 3-4cm across, dark purple when young, maturing purplish or blackish brown. Bract body about as long as the minutely fuzzy seed scales, with a projecting tip and sticking straight up between the scales, or sometimes curled back over them. Persistent cone axis broadly conical or swollen in the middle. Seed body 7-10 mm long, the wing about as long.

Bordères-Rey & Gaussen named Abies ferreana in 1947 for the French botanist Yvette de Ferré (1915–2003) who at the time had ‘already published beautiful works on conifers’ (Bordères-Rey & Gaussen 1947).

Endemic to China: Yunnan, SE Xizang (Tibet). It has been recorded from Zhongdian as far west as the Doshong La in Xizang; 3,000-4,200 m.

Conservation Status

Red List Category & Criteria: Least Concern

Varieties: -

Attribution from: Conifers Garden