All You Need to Know About Noble Fir Tree (Abies Procera)

Noble Fir (Abies procera) is an extremely beautiful evergreen tree. This one is the largest native fir in America. One can recognize this noble fir by its unique cones sitting upright on the branches’ top. It is not at all difficult to plant noble firs in the right hardiness one. Find out more about this incredible tree, including some caring tips for a noble fir.

Alfred Rehder described Abie procera as Noble fir in 1940. As stated above, this is American’s tallest fir, which justifies its species name that means “tall” in Latin. Also, the wood of this tree was used formerly for ladders and airplanes. In both cases, it is strong, light, and even bends far prior to breaking. This tree is still regarded as the best fir for lumber because of the wood’s strength.

Introduction to Noble Fir

Noble fir is a coniferous evergreen tree species that grows around 130-230 feet in height. Plus, it features a 6.5-foot diameter truck if measured this tree at breast height. They can exceptionally grow to 8.9 feet in diameter and 295 feet in height. They feature a narrow conic top.

Special features of Noble Fir:

• Young trees have smooth barks that are gray featuring resin blisters. These blisters become red-brown, fissured, and rough on trees that become old.
• The branches deviate from the tree’s trunk at a right angle. Plus, they are quite stiff.
• Their twigs are reddish-brown in color. Plus, they remain finely pubescent for some years.
• Leaves of this tree hide foliar buds, which are tan-colored, small, and ovoid-shaped. These buds are not resinous and have rounded apexes. Plus, these trees have broad, short basal scales with an equivalent triangular shape. They are not resinous and pubescent centrally with sharp-pointed apices and crenate margins.
• The needle-like leaves of this tree measure around 0.5-1.5 inches in length. Plus, they are blue-green in color with sturdy stomatal bands. There’s a blunt to jagged tip. The bands are spirally arranged on the shoot and twisted in the shape of ‘S’ to be up-curved around the shoot.
• Noble firs have erect seed cones, which measure 4.3-8.7 inches in length. Here, the purple scales are completely hidden by the yellow-green bract scales. They disintegrate for releasing the winged seeds during fall and mature brown.

Also, Abies procera is closely related to Abies magnifica (Red fir). The former one replaces the latter far southeast in California and Oregon. Noble firs are best distinguished by their leaves that have a groove around the upper side’s midrib. They do not exhibit this feature.

Also, red firs tend to feature less closely packed leaves, where the shoot bark is visible between their leaves. However, the shoot is completely hidden in a Noble fir tree. Plus, Red fir seed cones have short bracts, except in the Abies shastens is tree variety, a hybrid of Red fir and Noble fir.

Distribution of Noble Firs:

This tree species belongs to the Coast Range and Cascade Range mountains of extreme western Washington and Oregon and northwest California. This species features high-altitude trees, usually occurring at an elevation of 980-4,920 feet above sea level. This just rarely reaches the tree line. The hardiness zone 5 is perfect for this tree and the cold hardiness zone between -20 degrees Fahrenheit and -10 degrees Fahrenheit.

How to Grow a Noble Fir

If you like to include noble firs in your garden or landscape, you have to know that they thrive best in a cool climate. Noble firs can be grown in the USDA hardiness zones 6 and 5. Growing noble firs work perfectly if you reside in elevated areas of around 1000 feet and 5000 feet. Thus, if you grow a Noble fir at low altitudes, it can have root rot.

So, if you are looking forward to growing noble fir, they look for a proper place. Search for a sunny place with moist, cool, and acidic soil. Make sure that the tree receives about four hours of sunlight a day. So, locate a place with shelter from the rain and wind too. In a landscape, they look better and last longer than if not buffered by strong winds regularly.

Next, fill your container with high-quality potting compost. You can choose a plant pot, plug tray, seed tray, or improved containers having drainage holes. Gently firm the potting compost and sow your seeds on the surface. If you sow in a plug tray, then sow 2-3 seeds in every cell. Cover your seeds with some millimeters of sieved compost or vermiculite. Now, you have to water the seeds and keep the pot at room temperatures.

Germination will start some weeks from planting the seeds. Your seedlings are trouble-free and reasonably robust. In their first growing season, they will grow up to a height of 5 cm based on the cultural techniques and sowing date. After three years, they will be ready to be planted in a permanent position.

So, it is not difficult to care for a Noble fir. After planting seeds or young seedlings in a perfect site, make sure that they receive enough water while their root systems are developing. The best thing is that this tree does not need any special care or fertilizer.

If you begin growing a Noble fir, then you need to consider the fact that they have flat needles. Their tree cones can usually grow around 6-9 inches in length. Rather than hanging down, a Noble fir cone perches on branches and looks pretty like candles on an old-fashioned holiday tree. In landscapes, a Noble fir can live longer. These trees are pointer, which grow quickly after forests clear some area. Also, the wood is of high quality and strong.

Noble firs are narrow, tall evergreens with nice horizontal branches. These trees are renowned Christmas trees. Plus, they offer a lovely Christmassy scene. However, younger noble firs can be appropriate as a holiday tree. In a landscape, adult noble firs can grow about 200 feet, having a trunk of 6 feet in diameter.