Silver fir

The leaf

Single needles, flat and soft, 2 to 3 cm, with a blunt or notched tip. They are glossy dark green above with two white stripes beneath, and are arranged on both sides of the twig, like a comb.

The bark

Smooth and pale grey, almost whitish, for many years. On old trees it cracks into small plates.

The fruit

Cylindrical cones 10 to 20 cm long that stand upright on the top branches. They fall apart on the tree when ripe, so you almost never find a whole one on the ground.

The flower

The male flowers are small and yellow, under the branches; the female ones are greenish and upright, at the very top of the crown. They are rarely noticed.

1. Jan
2. Feb
3. Mar
4. Apr
5. May
6. Jun
7. Jul
8. Aug
9. Sep
10. Oct
11. Nov
12. Dec

Habit

A tall tree, 25 to 45 m, with a straight trunk and a very regular conical crown, its branches in tiers. Old trees have a flattened top, like a stork's nest.

Where it grows

It grows in the Pyrenees and Pre-Pyrenees on cool, shady slopes, roughly between 1,000 and 1,900 m, often with beech or Scots pine. A small isolated population survives in the Montseny, the southernmost in Catalonia.