Cascades Fir

The Abies Amabilis is commonly known as Amabilis Fir, Cascades Fir, Lovely Fir, Pacific Silver Fir, as well as Silver Fir

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Growing Regions

Pacific silver fir occurs from extreme southeastern Alaska south through western British Columbia, the Cascade Range of Washington and Oregon, to northwestern California [6,7,51,55,60]. Pacific silver fir is also found in the Olympic Mountains of Washington [6,7,38].

     

General Information

The currently accepted scientific name for Pacific silver fir is Abies amabilis (Doug) ex. Loud. Pacific silver fir does not hybridize with its true fir associates. Some morphological intermediates of Pacific silver fir and subalpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa) have been reported [42], but these have proved not to be hybrids [14].

Pacific silver fir commonly occurs in late seral or climax mixed-conifer
stands [52].  Throughout its range the most commonly associated conifer
is western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla).  Pacific silver fir also
reportedly grows in extensive pure stands in parts of the southern
Washington Cascade Range [14].  Below are publications in which Pacific
silver fir is listed as a dominant or codominant species:

Preliminary plant associations of the southern Oregon Cascade Province [9]
Preliminary classification of forest communities in the central portion
  of the western Cascades in Oregon [16]
Forest communities of Mount Rainier National Park [28]
Plant association of Mount Hood and Willamette National Forests of Oregon [35]
Forest communities of northern California [55]
Plant associations for the western hemlock zone [64]
Preliminary classification systems for the vegetation of Alaska [68].

• More Cascades Fir Information

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