Abies pindrow - Pindrow fir description

Scientific name: Abies pindrow   (Royle ex D.Don) Royle  1836

Synonyms: Abies chiloensis Carrière, Abies himalayensis Lavallée, Abies pindrow var. intermedia A.Henry,  Abies pindrow var. pindrow, Abies webbiana var. pindrow (Royle ex D.Don) Brandis,  Picea herbertiana Madden, Picea pindrow (Royle ex D.Don) Loudon, Pinus naphta Antoine, Pinus pindrow Royle ex D.Don, Pinus spectabilis var. pindrow (Royle ex D.Don) Voss, Taxus lambertiana Wall.

Infraspecific taxa: Abies pindrow var. brevifolia Dallim. & A.B.Jacks.  1923

Common names: Pindrow fir, West Himalayan fir, Himalayan silver fir, Pindrau (Hindi)

Description

Tree to 60 m tall, with trunk to 2.5(-3) m in diameter. Bark silvery gray, darkening and becoming strongly ridged and furrowed with age. Branchlets hairless, shallowly grooved between the leaf bases. Buds 3-4(-8) mm long, covered with white resin. Needles arranged mostly to the sides of the twigs in several rows of different lengths, (2-)2.5-6(-9) cm long, shiny bright green above, the tips sharply forked to just notched. Individual needles flat in cross section and with a resin canal on either side near the edge a little separated from the lower epidermis, usually without stomates above and with six to eight lines of stomates in each dull light gray stomatal band beneath. Pollen cones 10-15 mm long, brown. Seed cones cylindrical, 10-14(-18) cm long, (4-)5-6.5(-7.5) cm across, dark violet when young, maturing dark reddish brown. Bracts up to half as long as the seed scales and hidden by them. Persistent cone axis narrowly conical. Seed body 10-12 mm long, the wing about 1.5 times as long. Cotyledons four to six.

Pindrow fir (from common name pindrau in the Simla Hills) has an extensive distribution at moderate elevations in the western Himalaya and is heavily exploited for timber.

Himalaya, from northeastern Afghanistan to Nepal and adjacent China in Xizang (Tibet). Forming pure stands or mixed with other conifers and hardwoods on cool, moist, snowy sites in the mountains; (300-)2,100-2,700(3,700) m. The climate is cool, moist monsoon, with abundant precipitation, but less than in the eastern Himalayas, much of it falling as snow.

Conservation Status

Red List Category & Criteria: Least Concern

Varieties:

Abies pindrow ‘Aureomarginata‘  
Abies pindrow ‘Aureovariegata’   
Abies pindrow ‘Variegata’

Attribution from: Conifers Garden