Abies firma - Momi fir description

Scientific name: Abies firma  Siebold et Zuccarini  1842

Synonyms: Abies bifida Siebold & Zucc., Abies momi Siebold, Abies thunbergii Lindl., Picea firma (Siebold & Zucc.) Gordon, Picea thunbergii (Lindl.) Koehne, Picea webbiana Gordon, Pinus bifida (Siebold & Zucc.) Antoine, Pinus firma (Siebold & Zucc.) Antoine, Pinus bifida (Siebold & Zucc.) Antoine, Pinus momi(Siebold) Voss

Common names: Momi fir, Japanese fir, Momi (Japanes)

Description

Tree to 40(-50) m tall, with trunk to 1.5(-2) m in diameter. Bark gray, becoming browner, flaky and then furrowed with age. Young branchlets with tiny, dark hairs in the shallow grooves between the leaf bases. Buds 3-5(-10) mm long, sparingly or not resinous. Needles arranged to the sides and angled upward in several rows, (1.5-)2-3.5 cm long, shiny dark green above, the tips sharply forked in young trees, simply notched or even bluntly pointed on old ones. Individual needles flat in cross section and with a resin canal on either side midway between the midvein and the edge and deep inside the leaf tissue, sometimes with an extra small resin canal near the margin or each side, usually without stomates above and with 14-16 lines of stomates in each gray stomatal band beneath. Pollen cones 10-20(-30) mm long, yellowish green. Seed cones elongate egg-shaped, (8-)10-13(-15) cm long, (3-)4-5 cm across, yellowish green when young, maturing grayish green. Bract blades about as long as the seed scales and with longer tips that point upward between the scales. Persistent cone axis narrowly conical. Seed body 8-10 mm long, the wingless than 1.5 times as long. Cotyledons four (or five).

The scientific name of Momi fir emphasizes its stiff needles.

Central and southern Honshū (primarily on the Pacific Ocean side of central Honshū), Shikoku, and Kyüshü (Japan). Forming pure stands or more commonly mixed with numerous other conifers in lower montane forests; (50-)300-1,000(-1,600) m.

Conservation Status

Red List Category & Criteria: Least Concern

Varieties:

Abies firma ’Bedgebury ‘
Abies firma ’Fastigiata’
Abies firma ’Gee’s WB ‘
Abies firma ’Golden Hue’
Abies firma ’Halgren’ 
Abies firma ’Juvenalis’
Abies firma ’Nana Horizontalis’
Abies firma ’Pendula’
Abies firma ’Sol’
Abies firma ’Tardina’
Abies firma ’Vanc’
Abies firma ’Variegata’ 

Attribution from: Conifers Garden