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West Virginia Trees

Chapter 39: BALSAM FIR
By A. B. Brooks
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Nature/Gardening/Animals

About This Book

A practical field guide to the native and introduced trees of West Virginia, providing keys based mainly on leaves and fruits, concise family and species descriptions, and detailed line drawings for about 101 native species. It organizes trees by botanical families, gives brief flower notes, a glossary of terms, and suggestions for identifying specimens; occasional introduced species and shrubs are noted. The bulletin emphasizes simplicity for non-specialists, offers measurements and habit descriptions for each species, and includes administrative prefatory material. Its aim is to aid lay readers and students in tree identification and to encourage local interest in forestry.

BALSAM FIR

Abies fraseri, (Pursh) Poir.

Form.—Height 30-70 feet, diameter 1-2½ feet; trunk continuous, tapering; crown pyramidal; rigid horizontal or ascending branches.

Leaves.—Linear, arranged around the stem, ½-¾ of an inch long, dark silvery green.

Flowers.—Monoecious; staminate yellow with red tinge; pistillate with rounded scales and pale yellow-green bracts.

Fruit.—Cones oblong-ovate, about 2½ inches long; width of scales twice their length, dark purple; bracts reflexed covering at maturity about half the scale.

Bark.—Roughened by cinnamon or gray scales.

Wood.—Light, soft, not strong, coarse-grained, pale brown with whitish sapwood.

Range.—From Virginia and West Virginia south to North Carolina and Tennessee.

Distribution in West Virginia.—Growing near Cheat Bridge, Randolph County; on the head of the Greenbrier River, Pocahontas County; and near the head of Blackwater fork of Cheat River in Tucker County.

Habitat.—Grows at high elevations and seems to prefer swampy soil in West Virginia.

Notes.—This species, which reaches the northern limit of its restricted range in Tucker County, is not commercially important. The trunks are occasionally sawed into lumber, and the tree has been widely transplanted on lawns.