BALSAM FIR

YOUNG BALSAM FIR...

NEEDLES 3/4"-1and 1/4"LONG, MEDIUM GREEN ABOVE, SOFT...

...UNDERSIDE OF NEEDLES GRAY-GREEN...

NEEDLES AND UPRIGHT CONES (SEEDS DISPERSED)...

Monday, 7:45 AM.  29 degrees F at the ferry dock, 26 on the back porch.  Wind SSW, calm with light to moderate gusts. The sky is overcast but trying to clear on the southeast horizon.  Humidity 85%, barometer 29.9" and rising.  We had a trace of snow last night, enough for squirrels, rabbits and the occasional stray dog to leave their prints.

   Balsam fir, Abies balsamea, in the Pine Family (Pinaceae) is a medium sized conifer native to central and eastern Canada, New England and the Lake States.  It may reach 75' in nature but much less in cultivation.  It's needles are soft, light to darker green on the upper side, and grayish on the underside.  The needles are spirally arranged on the cone-bearing branches (towards the top of the tree) but appear as flattened  on either side of non-fertile branches. Firs are easily distinguished from spruces by their soft, flat needles and upright cones (the cones of spruces and other conifers are pendant, hanging from the branches).
   In nature the balsam fir grows in association with black and white spruce, white pines and poplars, often in swamps and bogs.  It prefers cool, moist, rich soil but also grows on drier hillsides. It is also found on high mountaintops of the eastern mountains. In nature it is easily spotted from a distance or from a moving vehicle as the most spire-like  of the evergreen conifers. It is shallow rooted and transplants rather easily when balled and burlapped, or, as is increasingly the case, grown in pots.
   In landscaping the balsam fir provides a narrow, spire-like profile and is quite shade tolerant when young.  It is particularly useful  for naturalizing in wooded landscapes in the north.  It is not very heat tolerant and therefore not much useful in landscaping in the lower Midwest or South.
   It is perhaps best known for its use as a Christmas tree, but it also is valuable as pulpwood.  It's resin is very fragrant and has long had uses in both Native American and folk medicine.  The resin is also used as pitch for birchbark canoes.