Abies veitchii  Lindley 1861

Common Names

Veitch's silver fir (Vidakovic 1991).

Taxonomic notes

Synonymy (Farjon 1998):
  • Picea veitchii (Lindley) Gordon 1862;
  • Pinus selenolepis Parl. 1868;
  • Pinus veitchii (Lindley) McNab 1876 non Roezl;
  • Pinus nephrolepis (Trautv. ex Maxim) Voss var. veitchii (Lindley) Voss 1907;
  • Abies eichleri Lauche 1882;
  • Abies nordmanniana (Steven) Spach var. eichleri (Lauche) Beissn. 1887;
  • Abies veitchii Lindley var. nikkoensis Mayr 1890;
  • Abies veitchii Lindley var. olivacea Shiras. 1913;
  • Abies veitchii Lindley f. olivacea (Shiras.) Cinovskis 1974;
  • Abies veitchii Lindley var. reflexa Koidz. 1916;
  • Abies veitchii Lindley var. komagatakensis Hayashi 1952.

Description

"A tree up to 25 m high. Crown conical, often branched to the ground. Bark smooth and gray. Branches short, horizontal, with ringed folds near the base. Shoots reddish-brown with quite thick rust coloured down. Buds small, ovate-globose, very resinous. Needles densely arranged, directed forwards and partially upwards, those on the lower side of the shoot partly pectinate, 1-2.5 cm long, apex truncate and bifid, those on the upper side dark green, glossy and grooved, with 2 chalk-white stomata bands beneath (Fig. 32), resin ducts medial or occasionally sub-marginal. Flowers appear in May. Cones cylindrical, 4.5-6.5 cm long and up to 3 cm wide, bluish-violet when young, later brown, ripening in September and October; seed scales very densely arranged, 15 mm wide; bract scales slightly exserted and reflexed. Seed 7 mm long, yellow, wing blackish; 1000 seeds weigh ca 30-40 g. Cotyledons 3-5" (Vidakovic 1991).

Var. nikkoensis Mayr. has smaller cones than the type (up to 5 cm), and the bract scales are almost concealed by the seed scales. Var. olivacea Shiras. has cones about 7 cm long, olive green when young, later gray-brown. It grows with the typical form in Japan (Vidakovic 1991).

Range

Japan: Honshu, 1600-1900 m (Vidakovic 1991).

Big Tree

Oldest

Dendrochronology

Ethnobotany

Observations

Remarks

See Also

Farjon (1990).

Iwatsuki et al. (1995).

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This page is from the Gymnosperm Database
URL: http://www.conifers.org/pi/ab/veitchii.htm
Edited by Christopher J. Earle
Last modified on 7-Feb-2004