Choosing a Christmas Tree – Fraser and Noble Firs

The Fraser fir was named for John Fraser, Scottish botanist who explored the southern Appalachian Mountains in the late 18th century. The species is also called the Southern balsam and in the Appalachians, it's known as She Balsam because of the resin filled blisters on the tree's trunk – Red Spruce, by contrast is called He Balsam because it lacks the distinctive blisters, which were thought to be like little breasts! Fraser fir is a uniformly pyramid-shaped tree which reaches a maximum height of about eighty feet with a trunk a diameter of one to two feet in the wild. Its strong branches are turned slightly upward which gives the tree a compact appearance and means it is often seen as an ideal tree for outdoor public displays, this is also because it has relatively wide spaces between the branches, making it easier to decorate and the firm branch structure means it takes heavier ornaments easily, such as outside lights and large decorations that need to show up from a distance. As long as the cut tree is kept properly watered it has excellent needle retention.

The Noble Fir is deep green is noted for its unusually lovely branch shape, for this reason, boughs of the tree are often made into fresh wreaths by florists. Its branches are sturdy yet the needles are not too sharp to decorate easily. In the wild, the trees are tall, beautifully symmetrical and grow to over two hundred feet in height. The bark is smooth and the needles are over an inch long, bluish-green but appearing silver, and twisted upward so that the lower surface of branches are exposed. An interesting fact about the Noble Fir is that the R.A.F. Mosquito planes of World War II were built on noble fir frames.

Noble Fir photograph by Matt McGee, used under a creative commons attribution licence.