Balsam Fir

(Abies balsamea)

Color Photograph: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Balsam Fir (Abies balsamea)

Identifying Characters: The distribution of this species and the absence of visible brachts in the cone will identify this species.

Similar Species: Balsam Fir is the only native species in North America in eastern and central Canada and the northeastern United States.

Measurements: Mature trees 40-60 feet tall and 1 to 1 1/2 feet in diameter at breast height.

Cones: Purple, cylindrical, tapering at the end, 2 to 4 inches long; brachts short and hidden by the scales.

Needles: Needles are flat, 0.8 to 1.5 inches long, green and lustrous above, with silvery bands on the lower surface

Bark: Bark of older trees gray to red-brown arranged in scaly plates.

Native Range: In Canada, Balsam Fir extends from Newfoundland and Labrador west through the more northerly portions of Quebec and Ontario, in scattered stands through north-central Manitoba and Saskatchewan to the Peace River Valley in northwestern Alberta, then south for approximately 640 km (400 mi) to central Alberta, and east and south to southern Manitoba.

In the United States, the range of Balsam Fir extends from extreme northern Minnesota west of Lake-of-the-Woods southeast to Iowa; east to central Wisconsin and central Michigan into New York and central Pennsylvania; then northeastward from Connecticut to the other New England States. The species is also present locally in the mountains of Virginia and West Virginia. (Silvics of North America. 1990. Agriculture Handbook 654.)

Habitat: Balsam Fir is widespread in the Canadian Zone forests of eastern Canada and the northern United States and is particularly common on low, swampy ground.