Description
Concolor Fir Tree, native to the western United States, makes an excellent landscape tree and is a popular Christmas tree. It’s native growing conditions are in the Rocky Mountains. They like fertile, moist, well drained soils but do not handle wet places or heavy clay well. After they are established, they can thrive in soils that are dryer. More heat and drought tolerant than most other firs.
The needles of the concolor fir are a lustrous dark green above, pale beneath, narrow and straight. They are 1 1/2-3″ in length and curve upward. Bluish green to blue to silver in color, flat with a soft waxy coating. The coating helps retain moisture during times of low humidity or low rainfall. It also helps them to retain needles for a long time after being cut for Christmas.
Cones on the concolor fir are erect, as in all true firs, 3-5″ long and 1″ wide. They are conical in shape, greenish or purple when new and brown with age. When the seeds fall off, only a stem remains. The young cones are beautiful in the spring and early summer!
The bark on concolor fir is smooth and gray on young trees. Old trees have fissured and scaly bark. The wood is light, soft, weak, coarse-grained with wide rings and lighter in color. It is not usually considered a lumber tree. They make fine Christmas trees with great needle retention.
Low fir is often considered a variety of Concolor, some consider the low a hybrid between white and grand fir. Transplants well balled and burlapped if root pruned since it has a wide shallow root system. Makes a good substitute for blue spruce in the landscape. The seed of our swift silver concolor fir is from an isolated strain of parent trees with the brightest silver-blue needles.
Concolor Fir Tree
Scientific Name: Abies concolor
Zone: 4-7
Mature Height: 30-50 ft
Mature Width: 20-35 ft
Growth Rate: 1 – 1.5′ per year
Soil: Moist, fertile, well-drained soil
Drought Tolerance: Good
Flood Tolerance: Poor
Sun Requirements: Sun or part shade
Fall Color: None
Wildlife Value: Deer browse the greenery and buds. Chickadees, nutcrackers, crossbills, squirrels, chipmunks and other rodents eat the seeds. Nesting cover for birds.
