Fraser Firs in the Wild
‘Tis the season when people across the world welcome a little nature into their homes for the sake of holiday cheer. Nearly 30 million households across America take part in the festive tradition of inviting an evergreen inside and joyously adorning it with ornaments and sparkling lights. A number of different evergreen species may don the honored title of Christmas Tree. The local choice of Christmas tree species varies much like regional dialects – the Scots Pine in the far north, the Douglas-fir in the Pacific Northwest, Balsam Fir near Canada, the Sand Pine in Florida. But the gold standard across the country is the Fraser Fir. A curious mind may inquire: Where do Christmas trees come from? If your tree is a Fraser fir, its proverbial roots are in the Blue Ridge, the native range of Fraser firs. Odds are, its physical roots are in the Blue Ridge too, as North Carolina, Virginia, and Tennessee are the top three Fraser farming states.
Getting to know the Fraser Fir
The Fraser fir, Abies fraseri, is a coniferous evergreen tree native to the Blue Ridge Mountains. Although known by a handful of names including Southern balsam fir, She-balsam, and Mountain balsam, the most common name is simply Fraser fir. The tree is named for John Fraser, a Scottish botanist who explored much of the Southern Appalachians and documented these trees in dense forests during the late 1700’s. The Fraser Fir has been symbolic of the Blue Ridge region since.
Fraser Fir Features
Fraser Firs are medium sized evergreen trees. The largest on record grew to 87 feet tall and had a trunk 34 inches wide. Most fully grown wild Fraser firs reach a maximum height of 50 feet, and have trunks less than a foot in diameter. A lucky Fraser may grow in the wild for over 150 years. Cultivated Frasers are harvested much younger, usually at a maximum of seven to ten years old and thus typically only reach heights of three to eight feet.
Fraser firs grow in that classic conical shape while young and may keep it up if they’re able to receive plenty of direct sunlight. Older Fraser firs growing in packed natural forest areas develop a different shape, with pole-like trunks holding sparse dead branches in a shady understory and green, dense needle canopies only at the top of the trees where they can receive the sun’s energy. They have smooth, thin gray-brown bark that becomes rough on old trees. The Fraser fir also has a neat bark feature; blisters containing sticky resin with a strong pine scent form on the bark. The resin blisters serve as a defense mechanism against insects trying to burrow into the tree. If an eager insect takes a bite, a blister gets burst and immobilizes the potential pest in a prison of thick goo, while subsequently sealing up any open damage to the bark. These blisters are common across most species of fir.
All species of fir (trees in the genus Abies) have rounded needles, in contrast with spruce trees (genus Picea) which have needles ending in distinctly pointed tips. This gives us the helpful identification catchphrase “friendly fir, spiky spruce.” The difference in feeling is unmistakable. Fraser firs are no exception to this, having nicely rounded needles arranged in a dense spiral around its twigs. Needles are a dark, glossy green on top and are much lighter underneath – a silvery white shade with a green stripe down the center.
Fraser fir trees are monoecious, which means they have both male and female reproductive systems. Female and male flowers are both found in the top half of the tree with female flowers above the male flowers within the top couple of feet of the tree. Trees reach maturity and begin seed production at about 15 years of age, so most farmed Fraser firs never reach seeding age. The cones stand upright along the tree branches and are 1½ to 2½ inches long. The lightweight winged seeds disperse with high winds after ripening in the early fall, and are a favorite food of red squirrels trying to fatten up for the winter.
Fraser cones picked clean off the branch by hungry squirrels!
Fraser Fir Trees in the Wild
The Fraser Fir is an endemic species of the Blue Ridge region, where native populations form unique forests across a handful of mountaintops. As the only fir endemic to the area, Fraser fir is well adapted to the harsh climate of the highest parts of the southern Appalachians. It is naturally found as low as 4500 ft. on some northern slopes, but usually found closer to 5500 ft. in elevation. It grows in shallow rocky acidic soils and relies on the cold and moist climate of the mountains. At these high elevations moisture comes not just from rainfall, but also from dense fogs that cling to the mountains. It has been estimated that throughout the fir’s range, fog is present 65 percent of the days of the growing period and contributes a significant portion of the moisture. Low temperatures, high winds and frost are also important for the success of a wild Fraser fir. Average annual temperatures across the native range vary from 43⁰ F to 48⁰ F. Being specifically adapted to these harsh conditions keep populations of Fraser fir established over the competing Appalachian northern hardwood forests.
Inside a Fraser forest, lush layers of mosses, ferns, and forbs provide ground cover. Fraser fir is also associated with several other trees and shrubs at various elevations. At the highest elevations, often the only other tree in the canopy is mountain ash (Sorbus americana). At mid to lower elevations, Fraser Fir is usually found alongside red spruce (Picea rubens), yellow birch (Betula alleghaniensis), sugar maple (Acer saccharum) and Eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis). Common shrubs found in Fraser fir habitat include hobblebush (Viburnum alnifolium), redberry elder (Sambucus pubens), minnie-bush (Menziesia pilosa), Catawba rhododendron (Rhododendron catawbiense), and smooth blackberry (Rubus canadensis).
Fraser fir forests are also teeming with wildife. These forests provide food, water, and shelter to animals who would otherwise be extinct from the region or from the world. Creatures such as Northern flying squirrels (Glaucomys sabrinus), the beautiful Weller's salamander (Plethodon welleri), the world’s smallest species of tarantula (Spruce-fir moss spiders, Microhexura montivaga), the fascinating Rock gnome lichen (Gymnoderma lineare), the wide-eyed Saw whet owl (Aegolius acadicus), and Red crossbills (Loxia curvirostra) are dependent on the existence of Fraser trees and the montane habitats they form in Southern Appalachia.
Source: USGS/Public Domain. Map of Fraser Fir forests across native range.
What Makes the Fraser Fir an Ideal Christmas Tree?
Grown commercially as a major crop in Northwest North Carolina and Southwestern Virginia, Fraser firs are the most popular choice of Christmas tree across the country. They excel in every category of Christmas tree performance: scent, needle retention, shape, branch strength, and longevity. They have a pleasantly mild, classic evergreen scent accented by citrusy notes of acidic tang. The aroma is strong enough to notice when walking into a room, or through a patch of fir on a hike, but not as overwhelmingly pungent as a Balsam Fir. Frasers have excellent needle retention, meaning they’ll hold on to their needles long after being chopped and through the perils of decorating, so Fraser Christmas trees can be enjoyed for longer and with less clean-up than some other Christmas tree species. Additionally, these hardy trees stay looking full and fresh for a good while, which is nice in the home and a very favorable feature when considering trees that are being harvested, tied up, and traveling interstates on truck-back before waiting for the right home in rows at local distributors across America. Their sturdy branches can support heavy, fragile heirloom ornaments without bowing under the pressure.
BRDC’s own choice Fraser Fir christmas tree, adorned with holiday cheer.
Here in the Blue Ridge Mountains, we have the great honor of being the native range of the Fraser fir. The fantastic fir in question is not only an icon of Christmas but it is also an icon of the Blue Ridge Mountains, as it is a species that defines our region as spectacularly different from surrounding areas. It is an "ice-age relic" that once dominated the river valleys 12,000+ years ago during the Pleistocene. As climate patterns changed over the past few millennia and glaciers faded away from Appalachia, the hardy cold-weather Fraser fir slowly chased suitable growing conditions up to the very tops of the region's tallest mountains. Thus, mountaintop evergreens formed the flora foundation of modern "sky islands” across Southern Appalachia’s highest peaks. These sky islands are completely unique ecosystems. Up on slopes like Mount Rogers, spruce-fir rainforests are teeming with habitat that seems more suited to Canada than America’s South. Within the dense fogs and evergreen limbs, there are species found nowhere else in the world.
