Abies pseudochensiensis— A new fir described from cultivation from European living collections

Abstract

A very distinct Abies , long cultivated in European gardens, typically without a name or with an incorrect name, and always without an exact source of origin, has been studied by present authors in several European living collections and herbaria. The tree, with needles pale green abaxially and conspicuously large blue-gray to purplish cones, appears identical with the taxon described and well illustrated in Franco (1950) as A. × vasconcellosiana ( A. pindrow × A. pinsapo ) and described as an accidental natural hybrid of two distantly related species, both of which have been cultivated in Pena Park, Sintra, Portugal. Unfortunately no living tree survived at the type locality and only sterile branchlets or cones in carpological collections have been found in herbaria. Plants in living collections that are evidently the same taxon as this one are variously named as A. chensiensis, A. ernestii, A. gamblei , or A. × vasconcellosiana but indeed represent a very distinct species that must be a late 19th centur...