Cilician Fir Seeds (Abies Cilicica)

Cilician Fir / Abies Cilicica

This slow-growing conifer is native to highland pockets from Lebanon and northern Syria northward into south-central Turkey. It matures with a narrow, pyramid-like silhouette with ash-gray bark that becomes fissured and plated with great age.


Needles spread upward and forward in two ranks on the occasionally fuzzy branchlets. Each needle is pliable, glossy rich bright green with whitish green undersides. From a distance, the effect is a seafoam green color to the tree. Female seeds cones are greenish brown to sienna-brown when ripe. A cone is rather large and cylindrical with a nipple-like but blunt tip.

Grow Cilician fir in sunny landscapes, although light shade is tolerated. Its slow growth is made lusher in a moist, organic-rich, well-drained soil. Any pH, from slightly alkaline to moderately acidic, is acceptable. Use this evergreen as a magnificent specimen in a lawn, park or cemetery.