Subalpine fir
A narrow, spire-shaped high-mountain fir with smooth gray bark and flat, soft needles, moving in wherever fire has stayed away long enough.
Subalpine fir at a glance
Abies lasiocarpa SUB-al-pine fir; Abies lasiocarpa is AY-bee-eez lay-see-oh-KAR-puh
- Type
- Plant · conifer
- Diet
- Producer
- Lifespan
- Mature trees are often 150 to 200 years old, and trees older than 250 years are not uncommon. Some in Olympic National Park have been dated at more than 400 years.
- Conservation
- Not federally listed. Common in cooler, moister high-elevation sites across its range, where NPS notes it becomes an important forest component.
Eats sunlight, water, soil nutrients
Photosynthesizes through flat, soft needles. NPS describes subalpine fir as having smoother, gray bark and flat needles, unlike the scaly bark and squarish needles of the Engelmann spruce it often grows beside.
Is it safe to touch?
Harmless — no spines, no poison. Its needles are flat and soft, not sharp, which is one gentle way to tell it apart from the Engelmann spruce that often grows right next to it.
Two conifers can stand trunk to trunk near treeline and still be easy to tell apart with your eyes shut. NPS lays out the difference: subalpine fir has smoother, gray bark and flat needles, while the Engelmann spruce beside it has scaly bark and needles sharp enough to poke. Run a hand down each trunk and the fir is the gentle one.
Gentle doesn’t mean passive. NPS reports that across much of the 20th century, putting out wildfires as fast as they started let subalpine fir and Engelmann spruce grow up where whitebark pine used to hold ground near treeline. Whitebark pine needs fire to clear space and thin its competition. Subalpine fir needs nothing of the kind — no flame, no disturbance, just time — and time was exactly what a century of fire suppression handed it.
A dense, dark, healthy-looking stand of subalpine fir at treeline can be a record of an absence. Where a stand like that has replaced open whitebark pine woodland, it marks the shape a forest takes when a fire that used to visit stops coming. Stand under one, look up its narrow spire toward the sky, and you’re looking at a tree doing exactly what it does best: waiting out whatever doesn’t happen.
Did you know?
- Subalpine fir has smoother, gray bark and flat needles — a hand-feel way to tell it apart from Engelmann spruce's scaly bark and squarish needles.
- Where wildfire was kept off the land for much of the 20th century, whitebark pine forest was widely replaced by subalpine fir and Engelmann spruce instead.
- It grows in the same cooler, moister high-elevation ground that Engelmann spruce prefers, and the two are often found growing side by side.
Common questions
How do you tell subalpine fir from Engelmann spruce?
By bark and needles. The fir has smoother, gray bark and flat needles, while the spruce next to it has scaly bark and squarish needles.
Why is subalpine fir spreading in some old whitebark pine forests?
NPS explains that a century of putting out wildfires let subalpine fir and Engelmann spruce grow up and crowd out whitebark pine, which depends on fire to clear space for it.
Where does subalpine fir grow?
On cooler, moister ground high on the mountain, often side by side with Engelmann spruce.
Is subalpine fir dangerous to touch?
No. Its needles are flat and soft rather than sharp, so it's one of the gentler conifers to brush up against.