This fir usually has small (less than 6 cm long) but very attractive cones with the dark blue-gray cone having relatively large, long-exserted, broad-winged, showy bracts. This example is from Benmore Botanic Garden, R.B.G. Edinburgh.
As observed in cultivation, this fir has cones greatly variable in color – from green to purplish- or blue-gray. The length and color of the bracts are also variable. Most commonly the cones are dark gray with some level of bluish tint as shown in this specimen photographed in the arboretum of the Polish Institute of Dendrology (Kórnik).
Genus: Abies
This species is often confused with A. pinsapo, because the leaves on terminal branches may appear radially (especially in drier circumstances and on leading shoots). However, A. numidica has pectinately outspreading, longer, flat, shiny, dark green needles on the shade branches, while the needles of A. pinsapo are radially outspreading, short, cylindrical, gray, and sharper.
An easily recognized species, in spite that the plants vary in foliage color (usually shiny green but sometimes silvery gray above with dense stoma-lines) as well as in cone color (medium gray to intense blue-gray). The cones are small, with a maximum length of 8 cm but usually in the 5-6 cm range.
Rare in cultivation, this young tree of /Picea engelmannii /subsp. /mexicana /is cultivated at Forstgarten Tharandt, Germany.
Male and female cones of a mature tree of /Picea glauca/, at the botanical garden of the University of West Hungary (Sopron).
Pollen cones (rarely met with) on a young plant of /Pilgerodendron uviferum/ at the Budakeszi Herbarium (Hungary).
A mature stand of Larix decidua in the Suiss Alps with the landmark mountain Matterhorn (4478 m) in the far distance. Often seen in pure stands (like here), the larch commonly associates with Picea abies, Pinus cembra, and P. sylvestris.
Photo: Zsolt Debreczy - Istvan Racz
For some people, this is a familiar sight - pollen cones and ovuliferous cones, respectively, of Chamaecyparis lawsoniana. For others, these may simply mean "beauty in the details" that can be enjoyed by a simple magnifier. The pictures were captured in a living collection in Hungary.