Abies fraseri

Fraser fir in the pine or Pinaceae family is native to Appalachian Mountains of the Southeastern United States. It is closely related to balsam fir (Abies balsamea), but only up to 15 m tall.

It is widely used in parts of Europe, the U.S. and Canada as a Christmas tree because of its soft needles and their longer retention.

• The crown is conical, with straight branches either horizontal or angled 40° upward from the trunk; it is dense when the tree is young, but becomes more open as it ages.
• Leaves are needle-like, arranged spirally on the twigs but twisted at the base to spread in two rows, 10–23 mm long and 2.0–2.2 mm broad; they are flat and flexible with a rounded or slightly notched tips, dark green to glaucous green above and often silvery white undersides.
• Needles are attached to the twig by a base resembling a small suction cup.
• The species is monoecious; cones are erect (unlike pendant spruce cones), cylindric, 3.5–6 cm long and 2.5–3 cm broad, dark purple, turning light brown when mature, with long reflexed green, yellow or pale purple bract scales, and often resinous. The cones disintegrate when mature in the fall to release the winged seeds.
• The bark is thin and smooth, gray-brown with numerous resin blisters on young trees, becoming fissured and scaly with age. The foliage is strongly turpentine-scented.