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Abies numidica


Abies numidica - Algerian fir description


 

Scientific name: Abies numidica  de Lannoy ex Carrière  1866

Synonyms: Abies baborensis Coss., Abies pinsapo subsp. numidica (de Lannoy ex Carrière) A.E.Murray, Abies pinsapo var. baborensis Coss., Abies pinsapo var. numidica (de Lannoy ex Carrière) Salomon, Abies pinsapo subsp. numidica (de Lannoy ex Carrière) A.E.Murray, Picea numidica (de Lannoy ex Carrière) R.Sm. ex Gordon, Pinus baborensis (Coss.) W.R.McNab

Common names: Algerian fir, Algerian silver fir, Numidian fir, Sapin d'Algerie (French)

 

Description

Trees to 20 m tall, with trunk to 0.5-0.8 m in diameter.  Trunk monopodial, straight, columnar, terete, but on exposed sites often twisted and forked; crown broad pyramidal, usually dense but irregular. Bark smooth and grey in young trees, fissured and scaly, dark grey brown in old trees. Branches of first order continuous to base of trunk, spreading, the lower ones curved down; branches of second order dense, spreading horizontally, ascending near the top of the tree. Branchlets stout, firm, greyish brown or yellowish, or shining orange-brown, prominently ridged between the leaves, glabrous; leaf scars circular. Vegetative buds ovoid or broad conical, 5 × 4 mm, not resinous, or only slightly resinous at base; bud scales ovate, obtuse or acute, appressed, brown, persisting several years. Leaves spirally arranged, radially spreading, especially on shoots in the periphery of the crown, those on lower shaded branches sometimes more or less pectinate, on cone bearing shoots likewise radial, the upper leaves almost recurved, (1-)1.5-2(-2.5) cm long, 2-3 mm wide, twisted or curved at base, linear or ligulate-linear, flattened, keeled by a prominent midrib below, (dark) green, glaucous near the apex, two whitish green bands below; apex obtuse or faintly emarginate, rarely acutish on coning shoots. Stomata especially near the apex or in a median groove above, in two bands divided by a midrib below. Resin canals 2, marginal, small. Pollen cones lateral, crowded, 1-2.5 cm long, yellowish. Seed cones lateral, erect; with short, scaly peduncles; cylindric, with acutish, often papilliform apex, 12-18 cm long, 4-6 cm wide, light green tinged with purple when immature, maturing to green with purple hue, becoming light purplish brown when ripe; cone rachis persistent, narrowly conical, brown. Seed scales cuneate flabellate, length × width at mid-cone 2-3 × 2.5-3.5 cm; surface smooth, slightly striated, puberulent on exposed parts; upper margin entire, repand; base pedicellate. Bracts spathulate, with small cusps, 0.8-1 cm long, included, rarely the cusps exserted in lowest part of cone. Seeds cuneate, 6-8 mm long, light brown; seed wings cuneate-oblong, 12-15 mm long, light brown, tinged with purple.

Mounts Babor and Thababor, northeastern Algeria; 1,200-1,800(-2,100) m.

 

Conservation Status

Red List Category & Criteria: Critically Endangered

 

Varieties:

Abies numidica ’Anthoine’
Abies numidica ’Aurea’
Abies numidica ’Baron Nagel’  
Abies numidica ’Compacta’     
Abies numidica ’Delikado’
Abies numidica ’Drath’
Abies numidica ’Glauca’
Abies numidica ’Glauca Pendula’  
Abies numidica ’Haber’s Garden Pendula’
Abies numidica ’Lawrenceville’  
Abies numidica ’Nana’
Abies numidica ’Pendula’
Abies numidica ’Prostrate’
Abies numidica ’Select’  
Abies numidica ’Schwarzwald’
Abies numidica ’Trautmann’
Abies numidica ’Zwergform’

 

Attribution from: Conifers Garden


 

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