Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

Western Carolina University (20) View all

Common forest trees of North Carolina

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Item’s are ‘child’ level descriptions to ‘parent’ objects, (e.g. one page of a whole book).

  • •tf$p<j£&.-s= -€>-&i=-«K§}" ST TRf ^3> -#ggp<£^~£= -e> -£ggp<K|>-s SOUTHERN BALSAM (Southern Balsam Fir) (Abies frascri Poir.) THE southern balsam, also known as mountain balsam, Fraser fir, and locally as she-balsam, is found on our highest mountains, usually associated with red spruce, from which it can easily be distinguished by its cones and leaves. It prefers moist, cool slopes at elevations of 4,000 to 6,700 feet. It is a tree of medium size, 40 to 70 feet high and 1 to SOUTHERN BALSAM One-half natural size. over 2 feet in diameter. The bark on the younger trees is pale gray, smooth, thin and prominently marked by "blisters" filled with resin or balsam. The branches are produced regularly in whorls on the young tree, and the head retains its pointed pyramidal shape until old age. The leaves are flat, linear, one-half to one inch long, with point rounded and often notched, dark green and lustrous above, silvery white beneath, arranged on the twig apparently in two ranks. The flowers are of two kinds, the male yellow tinged with red, the female cone-shaped, and the prominent yellow-green bracts are spine-tipped. The fruit is an upright purple cone, the long yellow- green bracts, however, often making it appear this latter color. The seeds have very wide wings, and when ripe, fall together with the scales and bracts of the cone, leaving the hard central axis standing upright on the twig. The wood is light, soft, not strong, coarse-grained. It is used for construction lumber and with spruce for paper pulp 15
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Object’s are ‘parent’ level descriptions to ‘children’ items, (e.g. a book with pages).