They are tall trees that can be distinguished from other members of the pine family by the way in which their needle-likeleaves are attached singly to the branches with a circular base, and by theircones, which, like those ofcedars, stand upright on the branches like candles and disintegrate at maturity.
The wood of firs is used forpulp to make paper, forplywood, and for indoor construction. Some species serve asChristmas trees, while others are used as decorative trees with their brightly coloured cones. In art,Lucas Cranach the Elder paintedMadonna under the fir tree forWrocław Cathedral in 1510.
Fir trees are tall, often 40–60 metres and sometimes approaching 100 metres high, usually with a single straight trunk. The crown starts conical, but becomes more varied in shape with age. The primary branches are arranged in whorls around the trunk.[7]
Firs have needle-likeleaves, arranged spirally but often appearing to be in two or more rows on opposite sides of the twigs. The base of each leaf is round and attached to a small pit in the twig. Each leaf is normally twisted at its base so that the side withstomata faces downwards.[7] In the upper crown on cone-bearing branches, the leaves are shorter, curved, and sometimes sharp.[8]
A. alba – the underside of leaves have two whitish strips formed bywax-coveredstomatal bands, while their bases are shaped like suction cups.
A. grandis foliage – upper side of the leaves, showing the leaves lying flat either side of the shoot
Foliage ofA. pinsapo showing the radial leaf arrangement in this species
Most firs are in between flat and radial, often with longer leaves at the sides, and shorter leaves above the shoot; here,A. mariesii in Japan
Firs differ from other conifers such asspruces in having erect, cylindrical female seedcones 5–25 cm (2–10 in) long that disintegrate at maturity to release the wingedseeds. Seed cones take a year to become mature; they start out green or other bright colour, darkening as they develop to dark brown or black. The leaflike seedbracts are visible when young, and in some species remain so. The seeds sit in thin cups; each seed has a triangle-shaped wing. The male cones are pendulous (dangling) and resemblecatkins; both pollen and seeds are wind-dispersed.[7]
The oldest pollen assignable to the genus dates to theLate Cretaceous inSiberia, with records of leaves and reproductive organs across the Northern Hemisphere from theEocene onwards.[9]
In 1754,Philip Miller set up the genusAbies; he also defined the type speciesAbies alba.[13][14] In 1878,George Engelmann classified only a part of the genus;[13]Heinrich Mayr did the same in 1890,[13][15] as did the German botanist Wilhelm Patschke in 1913.[13] The classifications by Paul Robert Hickel in 1906 to 1908,[13][16] and by P. Landry in 1984,[13][17] made use only of a subset of the available morphological characteristics.[13] In 1990 and 2001, the Dutch botanistAljos Farjon attempted a more complete classification; he accepted 48 species within the genus; in 2017 he reduced this to 46. Adopting a different approach, in 2011 Z. Debreczy and I. Rácz treated the genus as containing 67 species.[7]
SectionGrandis is found in western North America to Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, in lowlands in the north, moderate altitudes in south.
Firs are distributed around the Northern Hemisphere. The genus is native across much of North America, Eurasia, Turkey, Syria, Morocco, and Algeria. It is introduced in Scandinavia and the British Isles.[21]Abies sibirica grows as far north as 67°N in Siberia, whileA. guatemalensis grows as far south as 15°N in Central America. Most firs favour cold climates, whether at altitude in mountain ranges or at high latitude. Many species haverelict distributions, occupying small areas of what were once much larger distributions. Only a few species are widespread.[7]
Caucasian fir,noble fir,Fraser's fir andbalsam fir are popularChristmas trees, generally considered to be the best for this purpose, with aromatic foliage that does not shed many needles on drying out. Many form decorative garden trees, notablyKorean fir and Fraser's fir, which produce brightly coloured cones even when very young, still only 1–2 m (3 ft 3 in – 6 ft 7 in) tall. Many fir species are grown in botanic gardens and other specialist tree collections in Europe and North America.[29]
Lucas Cranach the Elder paintedMadonna under the fir tree forWrocław Cathedral in 1510.[30] The painting was taken to Germany after the Second World War for restoration, but a copy was made and substituted for the original. The forgery was discovered, partly because the copy was on a fir board where the original was onlime wood. The original was returned to Poland in 2012, the most valuable painting to be restituted to the country.[31]
^Miller, Philip (1754).The Gardener's Dictionary. Vol. 1 (4th, abridged ed.).
^Mayr, Heinrich (1890).Monographie der Abielineen des Japanischen Reiches. Munchen.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Hickel, Robert (1906-08). Notes pour servir ä la determination pratique des Abietinees. Bull. Soc. Dendrol. France 2: 45 58, f. I 7(15 xi 1906); 3; 5 18, f. 8 30 (15 ii 1907); 4: 41 48, f. 31 46(15v 1907); 5: 82 86(15 viii 1907); 7:5-10, f. a 1 (15 ii 1908); 9; 179-185 (15 viii 1908); 10: 201 208 (15 xi 1908).
^Knowlton, F.H. (1923). Fossil plants from the Tertiary lake beds of South-Сentral Colorado (Report). Professional Paper. Vol. 131-G. United States Geological Survey. pp. 183–197.doi:10.3133/pp131G.
^Wolfe, J.A.; Schorn, H.E. (1990). Taxonomic revision of the Spermatopsida of the Oligocene Creede flora, southern Colorado (Report). Bulletin. Vol. 1923. United States Geological Survey. pp. 1–40.doi:10.3133/b1923.
^Groth, Jacob (10 November 2000)."Monarch Migration Study". Swallowtail Farms.Archived from the original on 9 May 2022. Retrieved21 July 2014.
^"Monarch Migration". Monarch Joint Venture. 2013.Archived from the original on 2017-10-31. Retrieved2017-10-25.
^"Pests in Gardens and Landscapes". University of California Agriculture & Natural Resources: Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program. Retrieved10 September 2025.
^Hemingway, R. W. (2018-01-18). "Bark: Its Chemistry and Prospects for Chemical Utilization".Organic Chemicals from Biomass. CRC Press. pp. 189–248.ISBN978-1-351-07525-1.
^Barton, George M. (2018-01-18). "Foliage".Organic Chemicals from Biomass. CRC Press. pp. 249–280.ISBN978-1-351-07525-1.
^Christian, T. (2021)."Abies".Trees and Shrubs Online.Archived from the original on 2023-03-01. Retrieved2023-03-01.
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