Abies alba
The natural range of silver fir covers central, western and southern Europe. Its altitudinal range runs from about 800 m above sea level in the north to about 2000 m in the Pyrenees.
Silver fir is an evergreen tree with a height of 30 to 40 m, although specimens of 50 m and more can be found. The trunk is 20 m long and the diameter at breast height up to 1 m. The crown is conical when young and later more cylindrical. The branches are arranged horizontally in whorls, and the twigs do not droop. The bark of young trees is smooth and light grey; later it fissures and darkens. The bark accounts for about 11.5% of the volume and its density is about 460 kg/m3.
Fir wood is sapwood throughout, yellowish-white to reddish-white in colour; the growth rings are distinct, and the transition from earlywood to latewood is gradual, though somewhat more abrupt than in spruce. The wood has no resin canals, and the wood rays are thin and not visible. The texture is generally regular, sometimes with compression wood, and spiral grain and a wavy line of the growth rings can be found where they cross the wood rays.
The density of fir wood averages 410 kg/m3 in the oven-dry state, 450 kg/m3 air-dry and up to 900 kg/m3 green. The volumetric porosity is about 73%. Total linear shrinkage is 0.1% axially, 2.9 to 3.8% radially and 7.2 to 7.6% tangentially. Total volumetric shrinkage is 10.2 to 11.5%, and specific volumetric shrinkage varies from 0.34 to 0.38%.
Fir wood machines well; it peels, cuts, planes, drills and sands well, holds nails and screws well, and dries well and quickly. It is difficult to turn, carves well and stains well, while it takes acid and alkaline varnishes somewhat less well and is difficult to impregnate. The wood is used as a structural material for interior fitting, and for building underground and under water. It is used for musical instruments, in the pulp and paper industry, in the fibreboard industry, in the production of wooden packaging and elsewhere.