Abies recurvata

Min fir is in the pine or Pinaceae family and is native to China and Tibet, south of Songpan along the Min River in Sichuan, at elevations between 2300 and 3600 m, usually on windy cliffs or in deep river valleys.

• Trees can reach 60 m tall; tree crown is conical with branches spreading horizontally; crown becomes flat-topped with age.
• Leaves are needle-like, 1–3 cm long, stiff, sharp-pointed, spreading radially and curving upward on the branchlets, with 2 gray-green stomatal bands on the lower surface. Needles are attached to the twig by a base resembling a small suction cup.
• The species is monoecious. Pollen cones are pendant, 10-15 mm long, yellow in colour; seed cones are upright, fragmenting, ovoid, 4–8 cm long and 2.5–2.8 cm broad, gray or purplish-blue when young, maturing to brown. Bracts on each seed scale are short and do not protrude; cones disintegrate at maturity of late autumn, releasing 2 winged seed from each cone scale.
• Buds are ovate, large, brown, sometimes resinous; bark on young trees is smooth, gray or rusty brown, at first shedding in thin plates, becoming grayish-brown and becoming fissured and flaky.