Spanish Fir, Spanish Pin Fir           A-bez pin-SAH-po

• Conifer, evergreen, to 65 ft (20 m), broadly conical, branches in regular whorls, usually forming a symmetrical crown.  Needles radially erect, stiff, thick, 8-15 mm long, very sharp-pointed.  Twigs brownish-green, hairless.  Cones cylindrical, erect, 10-15 cm long.
• Hardy to USDA Zone 7     Mountains of southern Spain, between 1000 and 1800 m.
• Several cultivars, including:
  • ‘Aurea’  -  golden-yellow needles
  • ‘Glauca’  -  bluish-green needles
  • ‘Clarke’  -   dwarf
  • ‘Pendula’  -   nodding branches
  • A. p. subsp. marocana (Moroccan Fir)  -  has flatter, wider needles, and larger cones than typical Abies pinsapo.
• pinsapo: old Spanish word meaning pine-fir, pino(pine) and sapino (fir).  Or possibly short for pinus saponis, soap-fir, since twigs crushed in water yield a kind of soap (Jacobson, 1996).
• Oregon State Univ. campus: east side Gleeson Hall.