Abies concolor , thewhite fir , concolor fir , orColorado fir , is a cone-bearing tree in the pine household Pinaceae . This tree is aboriginal to the mint of westerly North America , including the Sierra Nevada and southern Rocky Mountains , and into the isolated slew ranges of southerly Arizona , New Mexico , and Northern Mexico and may occasionally reach 350 years of age .
It can be establish from 6000 ft . to 11,000 ft . in elevation in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado and New Mexico to the Coast Range in California and Oregon . Near the Pacific Coast it can pass as small as 2300 ft . elevation . In the average home landscape painting the tree will reach 30 - 50 feet tall and 15 - 25 feet wide when mature .
White fir was first collected by Augustus Fendler on his pleasure trip to the Santa Fe surface area of New Mexico in 1846–1847 . Fendler ’s frequenter George Engelmann , a St. Louis arena physician and phytologist , then described the flora . This tree was first collected in California by William Lobb on his expedition to California of 1849–1853 , after it was overlooked by David Douglas in his 1825–1827 pleasure trip to the Pacific glide region .
The tree diagram grow in an almost perfect pyramidal Christmas tree diagram shape when unseasoned ( and it is grown commercially as a Christmas tree ) , with horizontally tiered branch . At maturity the tree diagram develops a dome - like crown . The scant , flat , soft needles are silvery blue - green both above and below , although the underside may have a whitish heyday . The acerate leaf have a slight citrus tree smell when break . The smooth gray barque develops attractive deep , temporary seam and irregular , flatten scale on mature tree . The oblong cones are hold upright , and variegate in coloring from yellowish - green to purpurate . They suppurate in one time of year and generally disintegrate after the seeds are shed , falling off the tree diagram in September and October .
Best grow in rich , medium moisture , slightly acidic , sandy / gravelly , well - drained land in full Lord’s Day to part ghost . right in full Lord’s Day . Established trees tolerate some soil dryness , but best performance normally get along with moist soils . tree generally grow poorly in heavy remains territory . This tree thrives in areas with long winters observe by cool summer climate , and it ordinarily does not arise well in the heat and humidness to the south of USDA Zone 7 . It is , however , regard to be the dear of the firs for put up the growing condition of the Midwest .
lily-white true fir is a general , all - purpose , construction - gradation woodwind used extensively for solid grammatical construction framing and plywood . A significant lot of the Christmas Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree used in California are new white fir . These trees are harvest from natural stands , from re-formation surface area where the trees are cultured for as long as 11 years before harvest , and from areas used specifically for Christmas tree yield .
