Korean fir

An endemic fir from the mountains of southern Korea that has won over gardens worldwide with its purple cones.

A small conifer growing 10–18 m tall, with a dense, conical crown and short, dark green needles with silvery-white undersides. Even young trees produce plenty of upright, cylindrical cones of an intense violet-blue colour. In the wild it grows only on the highest peaks of southern Korea, above about 1,000 m, forming subalpine forests. The species is endangered – the warming climate is causing trees to die off on a massive scale, especially on Hallasan.

Significance in the country

The gusang namu is endemic to South Korea and a symbol of the Hallasan and Jirisan mountains; as an ornamental tree and Christmas tree it has spread to gardens in Europe and America, and in Korea its decline has become a symbol of the effects of climate change.

Where it grows

Only the highest mountains of the south: Hallasan on Jeju Island and the Jirisan and Deogyusan massifs on the borders of South Gyeongsang, South Jeolla and North Jeolla provinces.

More: Wikipedia (en) Wikipedia (pl)