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What species of tree is this? Is it a fir?

  • Site: The edge of a rocky, elevated clearing
  • Location: Near Sharbot Lake, Ontario, Canada
  • Mid October, 2025
  • Flat needle pattern; approx. 1-inch needles, purple buds
  • Unlikely to be ornamental; vacant, unused, rural lot

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    $\begingroup$ This one interests me. We've a stand of trees, one or two are like this. Never known what exactly they were. They smell great and produce copious resin at wound-sites and blunt cylindrical "cones" about 5-8cm long. $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 20 at 17:45
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    $\begingroup$ @JiminyCricket. Nordman firs are similar, and are a fairly common introduced species as ornamentals, for forestry, and for Christmas trees. So they're another possibilty $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 21 at 11:53

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Looks to me like a balsam fir which is native to your area. Wikipedia's description:

Balsam fir is a small to medium-size evergreen tree typically 14–20 metres (46–66 ft) tall, occasionally reaching a height of 27 metres (89 ft). The narrow conic crown consists of dense, dark-green leaves. 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 and needle-like, 15 to 30 mm (5⁄8 to 1+1⁄8 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 so that the leaves appear to be in two more-or-less horizontal rows on either side of the shoot. The needles become shorter and thicker the higher they are on the tree. The seed cones are erect, 40 to 80 mm (1+1⁄2 to 3+1⁄4 in) long, dark purple, ripening brown and disintegrating to release the winged seeds in September.

Some other pages with images like yours:

https://landscapeplants.oregonstate.edu/plants/abies-balsamea

https://gobotany.nativeplanttrust.org/species/abies/balsamea/

https://naturalresources.extension.iastate.edu/forestry/iowa_trees/trees/balsam_fir.html

They are popular as Christmas decorations; the maturing cones are characteristically purplish.

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