Balsam fir

It is a small to medium-size evergreen tree typically 14–20 metres tall, rarely to 27 metres tall, with a narrow conic crown. The bark on young trees is smooth, grey, and with resin blisters , becoming rough and fissured or scaly on old trees. The leaves are flat needle-like, 15 to 30 millimetres long, dark green above often with a small patch of stomata near the tip, and two white stomatal bands below, and a slightly notched tip. They are arranged spirally on the shoot, but with the leaf bases twisted to appear in two more-or-less horizontal rows. The cones are erect, 40 to 80 millimetres long, dark purple, ripening brown and disintegrating to release the winged seeds in September.

Abies balsamea Whiteface Mountain NY.jpgAbies balsamea White... 4,079,942 bytes Abies balsamea bark.jpgAbies balsamea bark.jpg 1,494,446 bytes Abies balsamea branch.jpgAbies balsamea branc... 534,484 bytes Abies balsamea krummholz.jpgAbies balsamea krumm... 3,611,252 bytes Abies balsamea phanerolepis.jpgAbies balsamea phane... 1,333,992 bytes Abies balsamea pollen cones1.jpgAbies balsamea polle... 1,418,869 bytes Abies balsamea pollen cones2.jpgAbies balsamea polle... More

Abies balsamea (balsam fir), of which it has occasionally been treated as a subspecies (as A. balsamea subsp. fraseri (Pursh) E.Murray) or a variety (as A. balsamea var. fraseri (Pursh) Spach). More

Abies balsamea, A Top 100 Common Tree in North America - By Steve Nix, About.com Guide See More About: * balsam fir * abies balsamea Balsam fir is the most cold-hardy and aromatic of all firs. It seems to gladly suffer the Canadian cold but is also comfortable when planted in mid-latitude eastern North America. A. More