Latin Name - Abies concolor
Height - 40-50 feet
Spread - 15-25 feet
Growth Rate - Slow
USDA Zone - 3 to 7
Drought Tolerance - High
White fir may be mistaken for blue spruce from a distance. A stately, pyramidal conifer, white fir differs in that the needles are flat and upturned like the fingers of a cupped hand. They are not pokey like a spruce (“firs are friendly!”), and when crushed they release a wonderful evergreen fragrance. Firs are also different in that cones stand upright on the tops of branches and disintegrate piece by piece (No cones to rake up!). Finally, white fir is much more drought resistant than blue spruce—-a good candidate for native landscape designs and xeriscapes. White fir would have been an excellent choice for the state tree of Utah.