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Abies homolepis
Nikko fir is a large evergreen conifer from the mountains of Japan, growing to 30 to 40 m. It suits cool, moist climates with snowy winters and is grown as an ornamental tree mainly in northern Europe and North America.
Abies homolepis, also known as the Nikko fir or urajiro momi in Japanese, is a species of fir native to the mountains of Pacific-side central and southern Honshū and Shikoku, Japan. It grows at altitudes of 700–2,200 m, often in temperate rain forest with high rainfall and cool, humid summers, and heavy winter snowfall.
Abies homolepsis is one of the five fir species of Japan, four of which are found on Honshu and surrounding islands. It is most closely related to Abies firma, from which it diverged in the late Pliocene. A. homolepsis, A. firma, and Abies veitchii are separately distributed by geography and elevation, although hybrids of the three have been found throughout Japan where they overlap, particularly in marginal areas.
The wood of Nikko fir is used for general structural timber, but it is not a popular timber tree because of its limited range and high elevation. Outside Japan, it is grown as an ornamental tree in northern Europe and North America.
Silver Fir · Pacific Silver Fir · Balsam Fir · White Fir · Fraser fir · Korean Fir · Caucasian Fir · Algerian Fir · Spanish Fir · Noble Fir · Oyamel Fir · Siberian Fir
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Abies homolepis by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
