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Scientific name: Abies nordmanniana (Steven) Spach 1841
Synonyms: Abies leioclada Steven ex Gordon, Abies nordmanniana subsp. nordmanniana, Abies nordmanniana var. leioclada (Steven) Czeczott, Abies nordmanniana var. tortifolia (Rehder) L.H.Bailey, Abies pectinata var. leioclada (Steven) Link ex Carrière, Abies picea var. leioclada (Steven) Lindl. & Gordon, Picea nordmanniana (Steven) Loudon, Pinus abies var. leioclada (Steven) Endl., Pinus abies var. nordmanniana (Steven) F.Muell., Pinus leioclada Steven, Pinus nordmanniana Steven, Pinus picea var. leioclada (Steven) Ledeb.
Common names: Caucasian fir, Nordmann fir, Kazazdagi fir (English), Doğu Karadeniz göknarı (Turkish), Sotchi (Georgian), Egevin (Armenian), Pikhta kavkazkaya (Russian)
Tree to 50(-70) m tall, with trunk to 1.5(-2) m in diameter. Bark gray, becoming shallowly furrowed with age. Branchlets with scattered to dense reddish or blackish hairs or none, grooved between the leaf bases. Buds 3.5-5(-6) mm long, not resinous or slightly (to heavily) resinous. Needles arranged to the sides and angled forward above and covering the twigs on lower branches curved upward on coning branches, (1.5-)2-3(-4) cm long, bright dark green above, the tips prominently notched or rounded. Individual needles flat in cross section and with a resin canal on either side near the edge just inside the lower epidermis or deeper, without stomates or with a few discontinuous lines of stomates near the tip above and with eight or nine lines in each white stomatal band beneath. Pollen cones 8-12(-20) mm long, reddish purple or yellow. Seed cones cylindrical, (10.5-)12-16.5(-20) cm long, 4-6 cm across, green when young maturing reddish brown. Bract blades about as long as the seed scales (longer with the tips), extending between them and bending down over them and then up at the tip. Persistent cone axis narrowly conical. Seed body (8-)10-12 mm long, the wing about as long to 1.5 times as long. Cotyledons six or seven.
It is named for Alexander Nordmann (1803 - 1866), a Finnish botanist who collected the type specimen in 1836 near the headwaters of the Kura River in Georgia and introduced it into general cultivation.
The distribution is mainly confined to the mountains adjacent to southern and eastern Black Sea area. There is a concentration of forest in west Caucasus (Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia) and northeast Anatolia (Turkey) and another concentration in northwest Anatolia. Forming pure stands or mixed with Caucasian spruce (Picea orientalis) and other trees; (600-)1,200-1,900(-2,200) m.
Red List Category & Criteria: Least Concern
As this species forms extensive forests which are largely intact and has a widespread distribution throughout the Black Sea Region of northwestern Turkey, eastwards to the western Caucasus, it has been assessed as being of Least Concern.
High montane zones of mountains on deep fertile soils derived from igneous and granite rocks. It forms both pure stands and mixed with Picea orientalis, Fagus sylvatica, Pinus sylvestris and Pinus nigra. In the Caucasus it occurs between 1,200-2,200 asl but on damper northern slopes it can grow between 600-800 m asl and in Turkey its altitudinal range is between 200-1,900 m.
Even though the wood is highly prized, logging has not had a significant detrimental impact on the population. However, the habitat of Abies nordmanniana ssp. equi-trojani is in decline due to a number of negative effects including acid rain, fire, local timber extraction and habitat degradation associated with large visitor numbers in Kazdagi National Park.
An important timber tree in the Caucasus and Turkey where it is highly valued for its straight grain and easily workable wood for building materials, especially veneer. It is used as a commercial plantation tree in many European countries where it is often grown for the Christmas Tree market.
This species is known from several protected areas.
Abies nordmanniana ’Aargau’ Abies nordmanniana ’Albospicata’ Abies nordmanniana ’Ambrolauri’ Abies nordmanniana ’Arne’s Dwarf’ Abies nordmanniana ’Aurea’ Abies nordmanniana ’Aureospica’ Abies nordmanniana ’Aureovariegata’ Abies nordmanniana ’Barabits Compact’ Abies nordmanniana ’Barney’ Abies nordmanniana ’Berlin’ Abies nordmanniana ’Bethlehem’ Abies nordmanniana ’Brandt’ Abies nordmanniana ’Brevifolia’ Abies nordmanniana ’Bright Light’ Abies nordmanniana ’Broom H’ Abies nordmanniana ’Coerulescens’ Abies nordmanniana ’Compacta’ Abies nordmanniana ’Cosfeld’ Abies nordmanniana ’Creamy’ Abies nordmanniana ’Dobřichovice’ Abies nordmanniana ’Durham Dwarf’ Abies nordmanniana ’Eifel’ Abies nordmanniana ’Emerald Pearl’ Abies nordmanniana ’Erecta’ Abies nordmanniana ’Filip’s Goldheart’ Abies nordmanniana ’Filip’s Perfect Column’ Abies nordmanniana ’Filip's Secret Mystery’ Abies nordmanniana ’Filip’s Twisted’ Abies nordmanniana ’Franke’ Abies nordmanniana ’Frankenhof’ Abies nordmanniana ’Fritsche’ Abies nordmanniana ’Glauca’ Abies nordmanniana ’Gold Spear’ Abies nordmanniana ’Golden Spreader’ Abies nordmanniana ’Goldschein’ Abies nordmanniana ’H. Broom’ Abies nordmanniana ’Hájek’ Abies nordmanniana ’Hexenbesen Jacobsen’ Abies nordmanniana ’Hopper Select’ Abies nordmanniana ’Horizontalis’ Abies nordmanniana ’Hupp’s Perfect Pillar’ Abies nordmanniana ’Jadwiga’ Abies nordmanniana ’Jakobsen’ Abies nordmanniana ’Jensen’ Abies nordmanniana ’Kamenná Lhota’ Abies nordmanniana ’Kendra’ Abies nordmanniana ’Kilian’ Abies nordmanniana ’Kolumnowa’ Abies nordmanniana ’Lennartz’ Abies nordmanniana ’Lime Lights’ Abies nordmanniana ’Midwinter Gold’ Abies nordmanniana ’Mlýňany’ Abies nordmanniana ’Münsterland’ Abies nordmanniana ’Nana Compacta’ Abies nordmanniana ’Peli’ Abies nordmanniana ’Pendula’ Abies nordmanniana ’Petra’ Abies nordmanniana ’Pevé Hasselt’ Abies nordmanniana ’Pospisil’ Abies nordmanniana ’Procumbens’ Abies nordmanniana ’Prostrata’ Abies nordmanniana ’Rako’ Abies nordmanniana ’Refracta’ Abies nordmanniana ’Robusta’ Abies nordmanniana ’Rustica’ Abies nordmanniana ’Särling’ Abies nordmanniana ’Schwarzgrün’ Abies nordmanniana ’Select’ Abies nordmanniana ’Sell’ Abies nordmanniana ’Sláma’ Abies nordmanniana ’Starkers Dwarf’ Abies nordmanniana ’Stiff Needle’ Abies nordmanniana ’Sunychl’ Abies nordmanniana ’Tortifolia’ Abies nordmanniana ’Trautmann’ Abies nordmanniana ’Variegata’ Abies nordmanniana ’Verkade’s Prostrate’ Abies nordmanniana ’Wintergold’ Abies nordmanniana ’Witch’s Broom’
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