Abies firma

Abies firma, the Momi Fir, is a beautiful evergreen conifer of narrow pyramidal habit, with stiff, sharp-tipped, dark green needles and the capacity in time to become a large tree. It holds a particular distinction in the South: this is about the only true fir that tolerates the heat and humidity of the southeastern United States, where most of its mountain-loving relatives simply melt away.

The species has long been scarce in the trade. In 1968 Edward Horder reported on thirty-five to forty-year-old specimens growing in Mobile, Alabama, and fine old trees can be seen at the Bartlett Arboretum near Charlotte. It has remained almost unavailable to gardeners over the decades, a connoisseur's conifer that we are glad to offer to those building a collection or seeking a fir that will actually thrive below the mountains.

Native to Japan, where its wood is valued for construction, Momi Fir grows slowly, perhaps a foot a year, into a broad pyramid that can reach forty to seventy feet in cultivation and far more in the wild. Plant it in full sun to a little afternoon shade, in average, consistently moist, slightly acidic soil; it tolerates clay and is not fully drought tolerant, appreciating a deep soaking once or twice a month through dry summers.

In the garden it makes a stately specimen or evergreen screen for a larger property, and serves, in the nursery trade, as the heat-tolerant understock onto which choicer firs are grafted for southern gardens. Give it room to become the tree it wants to be.