WHITE FIR (ABIES CONCOLOR)
Conspicuous in the higher forests of southern Oregon
are a number of true firs belonging to the genus Abies, which
includes also the well-known balsam fir of the East. Douglas fir should
not be confused with the true firs, as it is a widely different tree to
which the name fir has become attached by popular usage. All of the
true firs are fine handsome trees, many of them large in size and
producing excellent timber, others smaller and limby and found only at
higher altitudes. Eight species occur naturally in the Pacific coast
forests, and of these at least four occur in or near the Crater Lake
National Park.
Towering among the Douglas fir and pines south of
the park, is an abundant tree, the true white fir (Abies
concolor), whose massive gray trunks are unlike those of any other
found in the forest. White fir (fig. 10) reaches a height of 200 feet
under favorable conditions, and occasionally the trunks are 5 feet and
more through. It seldom reaches this size except in the California
Sierras. In southern Oregon half this diameter and 120 feet in height
is nearer the average dimension for white fir. This tree may be
recognized by its gray-furrowed bark, and by its dense conical crown,
both when young and in old age.
Fig. 10White fir (Abies
concolor) 9 feet 3 inches in diameter; 115 feet high.
White-fir needles are usually between 1 and 2 inches
long, and on the lower branches they spread out from the sides of the
slender twigs forming beautiful flat sprays. The cones of white fir
occur in dense clusters, and as in all of the true firs, stand upright
on the very top of the tree or at the tips of the upper branches.
Except for those that are cut off by the squirrels, or are detached when
immature by wind or other causes, they are never found on the ground, as
the cone scales fall away separately, leaving the central spike standing
on the twigs. White fir matures its seed in one season, and in
September the cones break up, sending their showers of seed and scales
to the ground.
The botanical range of this tree is from southern
Oregon to Lower California and east to the Rocky Mountains of Colorado,
New Mexico, and Arizona. Nowhere is it valued to any extent for lumber
as its wood is soft and sappy and the trees are greatly damaged by heart
rot.
White fir does not grow at high altitudes, going up
to only about 6,000 feet in the Crater Lake National Park region. It is
found mainly along the southern side, following fairly closely the range
of sugar pine.