ALPINE FIR (ABIES LASIOCARPA)
In the higher portions of the park is found the
alpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa), a small graceful tree whose limby
trunks rarely exceed 80 or 90 feet in height (figs. 13 and 14). The
crowns of these trees are remarkably conical and slender, and are
prolonged into tall, narrow spires, both when young and in old age.
This spire-shaped crown is very distinctive, and by it this tree can be
distinguished at once from all other species with which it is found.
When growing in the open the crowns extend nearly to the ground, but in
close stands the lower limbs finally die and become bent downward
tightly against the small trunk. The bark of this fir is smooth, hard,
and chalky white in color, and its thinness makes the trees very easily
killed, even by light surface fires. The foliage of alpine fir is dark,
blue-green, and the small cones, which are produced abundantly every two
or three years, are borne mostly on the upper portion of the slender
crown.
Fig. 13Within the crater of former
Mount Mazama. This view from the surface of the lake shows the
scattered groups of alpine fir and other conifers on the steep inner
slopes.
Photograph by H. H. Barbur.
It is mainly this fir that ornaments the slopes and
ledges in Anna Creek Canyon, and which finds a precarious foothold on
the steep and rocky inner walls of the crater of Mount Mazama. It is
abundant throughout much of the park, from about 6,000 feet up to the
local timber line that exists on several of the higher peaks, and on the
outer slopes of Mount Mazama it forms, with mountain hemlock and western
white pine, a considerable portion of the forest cover.
Fig. 14View of Anna Creek Canyon
from the Fort Klamath-Crater Lake Road. The trees in the foreground are
mainly alpine fir.
Photograph by H. H. Barbur.
Alpine fir is widely distributed throughout much of
the highest portions of the Cascade and Rocky Mountains from Alaska to
Arizona and New Mexico. It is essentially a tree of high altitudes,
seeming to prefer those situations where the winds blow the strongest
and the winter snows pile the deepest around its slender spires.
On account of its small size alpine fir is used
little, except occasionally for miners' cabins in the highest mountains.
The greatest value of this species is its power to form a partial
forest cover in barren situations near timber line.