Abies recurvata - Min fir description

Scientific name: Abies recurvata  Masters  1906

Synonyms: Abies recurvata var. recurvata

Infraspecific taxa: Abies recurvata var. ernestii (Rehder) Rushforth  1984

Common names: Min fir, Minjiang fir, Recurved-needle fir (English), Ziguo lengshan (Chinese)

Description

Tree to 40(-60) m tall, with trunk to 1.5(-2.5) m in diameter. Bark dark gray, browning, flaking, and becoming ridged and furrowed with age. Branchlets hairless or with short-lived, small, dark hairs in the deep grooves between the leaf bases. Buds 4-8 mm long, variably resinous. Needles arranged to the sides and above the twigs, angled backward on the leader and other exceptionally vigorous shoots, 1-2.5(-3.5) cm long, sometimes widest near the tip, shiny bright green or dulled with wax above, the tip bluntly to sharply pointed, even prickly on young trees, or occasionally notched. Individual needles flat in cross section and with a resin canal on either side touching the lower epidermis or away from it near the margin, without or with five to seven (to eight) incomplete lines of stomates near the tip in the groove above and with 9-13 lines in each greenish white stomatal band beneath. Pollen cones 10-15 mm long, red. Seed cones elongate egg-shaped to cylindrical, (4-)5-8(-10) cm long, 2.5-3.5(-5) cm across, violet-purple when young, maturing grayish brown. Bracts usually less than three-quarters as long as the fuzzy seed scales and hidden by them but sometimes the tips just sticking out in the lower half of the cone. Persistent cone axis thick and swollen in the middle. Seed body (5-)7-10 mm long, the wing a little shorter. Cotyledons four to six.

West-central China, from southern Gansu to southeastern Xizang (Tibet). Often forming pure stands or mixed with numerous other conifers and some hardwoods in a high montane forest in valleys and on gentle slopes; 2,300-3,800 m.

Conservation Status

Red List Category & Criteria: Vulnerable

Varieties: -

Attribution from: Conifers Garden