Abies procera, the noble fir, also called red fir, is a species of fir native to the Cascade Range and Pacific Coast Ranges of the northwestern Pacific Coast of the United States. It occurs at altitudes of .
Description
A. procera is a large evergreen conifer with a narrow conic crown, growing up to tall and in trunk diameter, rarely to tall and thick. The bark on young trees is smooth and gray with resin blisters, becoming red-brown, rough and fissured on old trees, usually less than thick; the inner bark is reddish. and naming it Pinus nobilis. This name however could not be used in the genus Abies, as the same name had already been used several years earlier by Albert Dietrich for a different species (Abies alba); thus, Alfred Rehder gave it the new name Abies procera in 1940. His chosen specific epithet procera means "tall".
Distribution
The species is native to the Cascade Range and Pacific Coast Ranges of western Washington and Oregon, as well as the extreme northwest of California. It is a high-altitude tree, typically occurring at altitudes of , often above ,
Noble fir has become naturalized in Britain (particularly in Scotland) and Denmark.
<gallery>
File:Noble Fir, young naturalised tree with cones, Northumberland.jpg|The large cones are heavy enough that the branch bearing them can twist under their weight
File:Weibliche Zapfen der Edeltanne (Abies procera)02.JPG|Cones
File:Abies procera.jpg|Foliage
</gallery>