Home > Bristlecone Fir

The Bristlecone Fir or Santa Lucia Fir (Abies bracteata) is a rare fir, confined to the bottoms of rocky canyons on the west slope of the Santa Lucia Mountains of southwest California, USA.

It is a tree 20-35 m tall, with a slender, spire-like form. The bark is reddish-brown with wrinkles, lines and resin vesicles ('blisters'). The branches are downswept. The needle-like leaves are arranged spirally on the shoot, but twisted at the base to spread either side of the shoot in two moderately forward-pointing ranks with a 'v' gap above the shoot; hard and stiff with a sharply pointed tip, 3.5-6 cm long and 2.5-3 mm broad, with two bright white stomatal bands on the underside. The cones are ovoid, 6-9 cm long (to 12 cm including the bracts), and differ from other firs in that the bractIn botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, from the axil of which a flower or flower stalk arises; or a bract may be any leaf associated with an inflorescence. Usually bracts are green and resemble the other leaves. However, some bracts are bris end in very long, spreading, yellow-brown bristles 3-5 cm long; they disintegrate in autumn to release the winged seedThis writeup is about biological seeds; for the Buddhist metaphor, see bija. A seed is the ripened ovule of gymnosperm or angiosperm plants. The importance of the seed relative to more primitive forms of reproduction and dispersal is attested to by the sus. The male ( pollenSEM image of pollen grains from a variety of common plants: sunflower Helianthus annuus , morning glory Ipomea purpurea ,hollyhock Sildalcea malviflora , lily Lilium auratum , primrose Oenothera fruticosa , and castor bean Ricinus communis . Pollen is a f) cones are 2 cm long, shedding pollen in spring.

This tree is rare in cultivation.

External links:

• Gymnosperm Database: Abies bracteata
• Photos of foliage