Spanish fir
Abies pinsapo
Family · Pinaceae · Harmless
The only fir native to the southern Peninsula, an ice-age relic surviving in just three Andalusian ranges. It is known from afar by its dark conical outline and up close by needles set all round the branch like a cylindrical brush.
Uplands
Also known aspinsapo fir, Andalusian fir
How to tell it
A tree to thirty metres, with a conical crown and horizontal branches in tiers. The needles are short, stiff and pointed, and set all round the branch rather than on two sides, which separates it from any other European fir. The cones stand upright on the branch and disintegrate on the tree. Range: mainly a Spanish plant, practically absent from Portugal.
What it is confused with
No dangerous lookalikes known in the Iberian Peninsula.
What it is for
None to give. It is a protected and threatened species, restricted to Sierra de Grazalema, Sierra de las Nieves and Sierra Bermeja, plus one population in the Moroccan Rif. The pinsapo woods are a Biosphere Reserve, and the species is suffering from drought and a bark beetle.
The law says
A protected species in Spain, listed as threatened. Do not collect plant material and do not leave the trails in the pinsapo woods.