Popular for Christmas trees, Fraser fir can grow to 50 feet

I probably should have posted this essay a couple of weeks ago, as it is all about my Christmas tree. In fact, though, around here, and probably where you live too, it's difficult to let go of the Christmas season.

This morning before dawn, when I took the dogs out, my neighbor’s Christmas lights were still merrily twinkling, a good two weeks after the presents were opened. I’ve heard that proper Southerners take all their decorations down by Epiphany, which of course is Jan. 6.

But there is something nice about having those Yuletide sentiments still projecting us into the cold New Year: a wistful time somehow, foretelling the week when campus will once again be crawling with undergraduates, and no parking places to be found on the street.

For most people in my neighborhood, their once-proud Christmas tree has been denuded of ornamentation and unceremoniously flung onto the curb, a few silvery icicles fluttering, along with once delightful poinsettias. But again I have digressed, rather seriously, I fear.

Fraser fir, Abies fraseri, this week’s Mystery Plant, is a native tree species, its native range entirely confined to high elevations of the southern Appalachians, specifically Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee.

Mature plants can be up to 50’ tall or so, with a stout central trunk. The bark contains plenty of resin. Its branches tend to be stiffly projecting outward and upward, and of course, this is one of the reasons that it makes such a fine holiday tree: it’s easy to hang those shiny ornaments without fear of their falling. Unless you have a cat.

The needles are flat, about an inch long, and marked on the lower surface by several whitish streaks: these are where the tiny stomates, or breathing pores, and located. Like all members of the pine family, it bears both male and female cones, and of course, it’s only the scaly female cones that produce seeds. The female cones are quite impressive, and in this genus, sticking straight up on the branch.

The seed cones are often purplish, sometimes yellow-brown, with sticky, fragrant sap sometimes oozing from the top. When the cone and its seeds are fully mature, the numerous spiraled scales with all fall away, with the seeds, but the central axis will remain on the branch, poking upward and persisting for several years.

These cones are generally only produced on mature individuals, so you don’t see them on that tree in your living room.

A tremendous market has developed involving the cultivation of these trees for holiday sales, and a flatlander such as myself need only drive into the mountains to see large plantings. In fact, this species is largely regarded as the best Christmas tree there is —which of course is a matter of opinion. Nevertheless, this species is grown not only in the southern states, but in many of the northern states as well. 

P.S. I guess I need to tell you what we do with our tree. It will end up next to the fence in the backyard: the birds seem to like to hide in it.  

John Nelson is the retired curator of the A. C. Moore Herbarium at the University of South Carolina, in the Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia SC 29208. As a public service, the Herbarium offers free plant identifications. For more information, visit www.herbarium.org or call 803-777-8196, or email nelson@sc.edu.

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