Growth
Balsam Fir is a small to medium-size evergreen tree typically 14–20 metres (46–66 ft) tall, rarely to 27 metres (89 ft) tall, with a narrow conic crown. The bark on young trees is smooth, grey, and with resin blisters (which tend to spray when ruptured), becoming rough and fissured or scaly on old trees. The leaves are flat needle-like, 15 to 30 millimetres (½–1 in) long, dark green above often with a small patch of stomata near the tip, and two white stomatal bands below, and a slightly notched tip. They are arranged spirally on the shoot, but with the leaf bases twisted to appear in two more-or-less horizontal rows. The cones are erect, 40 to 80 millimetres (1½–3 in) long, dark purple, ripening brown and disintegrating to release the winged seeds in September.
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Famous quotes containing the word growth:
“Sensuality often accelerates the growth of love so much that its roots remain weak and are easily pulled up.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“Interpretation is the evidence of growth and knowledge, the latter through sorrow— that great teacher.”
—Eleonora Duse (1858–1924)
“The English countryside, its growth and its destruction, is a genuine and tragic theme.”
—E.M. (Edward Morgan)