Nordmann fir, Caucasian fir
Needles attached singly via sucker-like bases, arangement on shoot slightly variable, but all pointing towards the terminal bud. Needles on underside of the shoot spread to either side, those on upperside are shorter, pressed down towards the shoot, and often overlapping like roof tiles. Needles in the crown of the tree and especially on fertile shoots can be very different in appearance; often chunkier and more upright along the shoot. Needles with two distinct bands of white stomata on the underside. Terminal buds brown, ovoid and bluntly pointed, and resin free. The shoot can have scattered short pale hairs in grooves in the first year but is often hairless by the second. Cones are usually high up in the crown of the tree and upright on the branches, disintegrating in situ when mature. Bracts are exserted, though the amount exserted is variable.
Nordmann or Caucasian fir is native to the western Caucasus mountains and northeast Turkey. Introduced to Great Britain in 1848 this species has become popular as a Christmas tree with a reputation for retaining it's lush covering of glossy-green needles longer than the more traditional Norway Spruce. Outdoors on living trees the needles are often retained on the shoot for 4 years or more giving the tree a lush and dense look. Abies bormulleriana and A. equi-trojani are very similar to A. nordmanniana and are sometimes treated as subspecies of it.