Abies alba

Abies alba, commonly known as European silver fir or white fir, is a large evergreen coniferous tree in the family Pinaceae, order Pinales, and is one of the most ecologically dominant and commercially important conifers of central and southern Europe. It grows naturally across a broad arc from the Pyrenees and northern Iberian Peninsula through the Alps, Apennines, Carpathians, and Balkans to the mountains of the southern Balkans and Caucasus, typically at elevations of 300 to 1,800 metres. European silver fir can reach 40 to 50 metres in height and trunk diameters exceeding 1.5 metres, with a straight columnar trunk and a narrow pyramidal crown that becomes flat-topped or irregular in old age. The bark is silvery-grey and smooth in young trees, becoming deeply fissured with age. Leaves are dark green, flat needles, arranged in two lateral rows along the branchlets, with two white stomatal bands on the underside that give the species a distinctive silvery appearance from below. As a true fir, the pollen cones are small and pendulous, while the seed cones are large, upright cylinders up to 15 centimetres long, set along the upper branches. The cones disintegrate at maturity, leaving only the central axis, a diagnostic trait of the genus Abies. Abies alba is an important timber species throughout Europe, and also ecologically critical as a provider of habitat and food for many forest-dependent species including crossbills and various mammals.