I don't get to identify this fir. I think it would be an Abies masjoanis, hybrid between A. pinsapo X A. alba, but I am not sure. What do you think?
I've not seen this hybrid before, but it certainly seems reasonable on the foliage, which does look intermediate between A. alba and A. pinsapo. Can you get a close-up photo of a cone by any chance? (not easy, I realise!! - is the tree yours to climb?). If this hybrid, I'd expect the cones to show just very slightly exserted bracts. Spellcheck: Abies × masjoani (no -s at the end)
Hi Michael, the tree is about 20 years old, and the last spring it showed up the first cones of it's life. The cones were light green in spring and now they are brown. Yes, the tree is mine (it came with the house) so I got the photo. Abies masjoani was created in Gerona, Spain, 50 years ago, but it is a very rare fir, and so I will be very surprised about having that one.
Hello! I am new in the forum and I just found this interesting post. I've never heard about Abies x masjoani but I've already seen some pinsapo hybrids. In my garden, there is an old Abies pinsapo tree (about 80-100 years). Some sort of bluish slow growing variety. However it has already about 15 m. This tree is a realy amazing source of hybrids. Most of them look like a "common" A. alba but with more prickly needles, some others are completely different, even dwarf ones. Here are some pictures from spring (parental tree; hybrids 1-5 with close-ups) ... Maybe your fir is the same type of hybrid as my seedling 1. By the way, nice tree and cones, wetcloud ;-) Regards Ota
Hello Ota, Welcome to the forum! Yes, many Abies are very free over hybridising (which is why botanical gardens never like to use the seed from cultivated trees!).
Thanks Ota, welcome to the forum! The foliage of this fir looks not as grey as the common A. pinsapo, so I guess it will be some subspecie of it, may be the hybrid Masjoani or may be not. I took more photos.
Nice climbing work, thanks! The cones look to be pure Abies pinsapo, there's no hint of any A. alba characters, and (despite the somewhat odd foliage for A. pinsapo) I can't see it being A. numidica either (which has similar cones to A. pinsapo). The foliage also doesn't fit for what little I've seen of A. pinsapo var. marocana. That is fairly variable in the wild; most of the cultivated trees are selected for blue foliage (sells better!), but greener trees occur too.
Well I understand botanical gardens, it's hard to class it taxonomicaly ... however you can get sometimes very interesting plant. So I like it :-) Thank you for welcoming. Ota
