Manchurian Fir – Abies nephrolepis

Manchurian Fir is native to northeastern China, the Korean peninsula, and southeastern Russia.

An evergreen, coniferous tree growing to 30 m tall, Manchurian Fir is closely related to Korean Fir (Abies koreana). With a trunk up to 1.2 m diameter and a narrow conic to columnar crown, the bark is grey-brown, smooth on young trees, becoming fissured as the tree ages.

Leaves are flat needle-like, 10–30 mm long and 1.5–2 mm broad, green above, and with two dull greenish-white stomatal bands below; they are spirally arranged, but twisted at the base to lie flattened either side of and forwards across the top of the shoots. The cones are 4.5–7 cm (rarely to 9.5 cm) long and 2–3 cm broad, green or purplish ripening grey-brown, and often very resinous; the tips of the bract scales are slightly exserted between the seed scales. Each seed scale bears two winged seeds, released when the cones disintegrate at maturity in the autumn [3].