Abies Mill.
Evergreen, resinous, conic or pyramidal trees, usually with smooth bark and whorled branches. Short shoots 0. Buds very variable in shape, generally resinous. Lvs solitary, spirally arranged, linear or linear-oblong, usually ± 2-ranked and often arranged pectinately (except on young erect shoots), leaving a flat circular scar (hence older shoots ± smooth), flattened, generally dark green above and with broad white to glaucous-grey stomatal bands below, less often both sides stomatiferous and glaucous-grey; resin ducts 2, marginal (just below surface) or median. ♂ strobili (cones) situated in upper lf axils on underside of shoots, catkin-like, yellow to red. ♀ cones terminal, erect, usually purple, ripening in first year; ovuliferous scales rather thin; ovules 2 to each scale. Mature cone often dark purple, with bract scales included or exserted, disintegrating; axis persistent. Seed with large wing.
c. 50 spp., N. temperate zone. Naturalised sp. 1.
Several other Abies spp., or silver firs, apart from the 2 mentioned below are commonly cultivated in N.Z., but the rare reports of wild plants are unsubstantiated by specimens. The most frequently encountered in gardens and plantations are: A. concolor (Gordon et Glend.) Hildebr., A. grandis Lindley, A. pinsapo Boiss. and A. procera Rehder. The first and last of these have glaucous-grey lvs; the bract scales are hidden in A. concolor and prominently exserted in A. procera. Like those 2 spp., A. grandis is indigenous to W. North America, but it has long, prominently pectinate lvs which are green above, white-banded below, and its bract scales are hidden. A. pinsapo, Spanish fir, is one of the few spp., all Mediterranean, which have the needles always radially spreading on the shoot.
