Grand Fir

(Abies grandis)

Color Photographs: © by courtesy of Charles Webber, California Academy of Sciences

Grand Fir (Abies grandis)

Identifying Characters: The green cones, hidden cone brachts, the two ranks of needles projecting perpendicularly from the branch, and the flat, flexible needles are characteristic of Grand Fir.

Similar Species: Needles are arranged in two ranks and arise perpendicularly from the branch in Grand Fir but are more randomly distributed along the branch in the Pacific Silver Fir; the cones are geen in Grand Fir, but purplish in Pacific Silver Fir; needles in California Red Fir are stiff and angulate and the cones are purple; the cones of White Fir are purple and the needles are blue-green not shiny green.

Measurements: Mature trees 100 to 200 feet tall and 1.5 to 3.5 feet in diameter.

Cones: 2 to 4 inches in length, green or green brown; cone scales hairy and brachts small and hidden by the cone scales.

Needles: Needles arranged in two rows and projecting perpendicularly from the twig lateral margins; needles flat, flexible, dark green above and silvery white below.

Bark: Brown, smooth, becoming divided into narrow scaly ridges.

Native Range: Grand Fir grows in the stream bottoms, valleys, and mountain slopes of northwestern United States and southern British Columbia. Its wide geographical distribution is from latitude 51° to 39° N. and from longitude 125° to 114° W. In the Pacific coast region it grows in southern British Columbia mainly on the lee side of Vancouver Island and the adjacent mainland, in the interior valleys and lowlands of western Washington and Oregon, and in northwestern California as far south as Sonoma County. The range in the continental interior extends from the Okanogan and Kootenay Lakes in southern British Columbia south through eastern Washington, northern Idaho, western Montana west of the Continental Divide, and northeastern Oregon. The best commercial stands of grand fir are in the Nez Perce and Clearwater regions of northern Idaho. (Silvics of North America. 1990. Agriculture Handbook 654.)

Habitat: Found typically on both wet cool valleys and mountain slopes, particularly along the Pacific Northwest coast.