Abies pinsapo Boiss.

Spanish Fir

A tree growing to about 30 m tall. Shoots red-brown, ridged. Buds ovoid, resinous. Leaves blunt, grey, rigid, widespreading, 10-20 mm long with 2 whitish bands below and 1 or 2 broad white bands above. Cones 10-15 cm long with a short-pointed tip.

Widely grown in parks and large gardens in Tasmania. Grows naturally in the mountain region of Ronda in S Spain. Perhaps best known as the blue-leaved cultivar 'Glauca'.

S Spain.

Leaves short, blunt, extremely thick, grey or blue, more or less at right angles to the stem.

ACT: Yarralumla (Nsy, ptd c. 1920). VIC: Ballarat (Mair St; Institute for Catholic Education, Drummond St; E Ballarat Town Hall Gds, commemorative planting c. 1886, 2 trees); Buninyong (Bot. Gds); Clunes (Queens Park); Creswick (Coghills Creek cemetery); Emerald Lake (near car park at lake and in short avenue at Nobelius Heritage Nursery site below station); Mt Macedon (Old Taylor & Sangsters nursery site); Noorat ('Dalvui'). TAS: Geeveston; Hobart (Royal Tasmanian Bot. Gds, main gate; Queens Domain); New Norfolk (Riverside).SA: Penola (Yallum Park). VIC: Dandenongs ('Pirianda'); Emerald (lake car park area in plantation of old conifers). TAS: Launceston (Kings Park).

Source: Spencer, R. (1995). Pinaceae. In: Spencer, R.. Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 1, Ferns, conifers & their allies. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.

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Distribution map

Abies pinsapo 'Glauca'

Leaves waxy blue. Raised Desfossé & Thuillier, Orleans, France, c. 1867.

kingdom Plantae
phylum   Tracheophyta
class    Pinopsida
order     Pinales
family      Pinaceae
genus       Abies Mill.