Medicinal Monday - The Magnificent Grand Fir Tree

Since time immemorial indigenous people of North America have been using plants and other natural substances and materials as medicine. Most of the time, the medicine was prepared in a similar way. All different parts of the plant were used - leaves, roots, stems, bark, buds, flowers, fruit, sap, and even pitch. One of the most widely used medicinal plants used by Indigenous peoples in New England and Canada is the Abies Grandis or the Grand Fir Tree.

About the Grand Fir Tree

Native to the Pacific Northwest, Northern California, and parts of British Columbia this tree is native to moist coastal bottomlands and alpine slopes from sea level to over 6,000 feet.  With a trunk up to six feet in diameter and a height of up to 250 feet, this quick-growing tree is the tallest Abies species in the world. The leaves with their notched tip are needle-like and make the branch appear flat so that it has a distinct upper and lower side. The leaves are glossy green in the front and on the back they have two white stripes. An identifying characteristic is that the leaves are different lengths but they all line up on a flat branch. The leaves emit a balsamy, tangerine-like aroma when crushed. 

The bark is gray and becomes brown with reddish furrows as the tree ages. The cones are cylindrical and stand upright above the needles near the tips of the upper branches. The cones are green in the spring when they emerge and mature into yellowish brownish cones that sometimes are tinged with purple. Pollen cones are yellow. Another characteristic of fir trees is that the scales on the pinecone drop and disintegrate in autumn after the seeds ripen. In the landscape, this tree has a near-perfect pyramidal, Christmas tree shape.

Medicinal Uses

The Indigenous people of the First Nation used pitch from bark blisters, bark needles, and cones as a poultice for sores, wounds, bruises, cuts, sprains, burns, bites, and infections. A tea is made from the bark and branches of the Grand Fir tree to treat sore throats, coughs, colds, digestive tract ailments, and as a tonic and purgative. Pitch is also used as an eye medicine, hair tonic, and deodorant. The branches of the tree were burned and inhaled as a kind of incense to treat headaches, and for spiritual protection.

Did You Know...

The largest Grand Fir is located along the Duckabush River Trail in Olympic National Park in the state of Washington.

The foliage has a citrus-like scent and is sometimes used for Christmas decorations in the United States.

It is sometimes called the Lowland Fir because it is the only Fir tree found at lower elevations.

Grand Fir trees live about three-hundred years.

Firs are useful to many animals for cover and for nesting sites. Grouse eat the needles. Deer and elk eat the foliage and twigs in the winter. Birds, chipmunks, and squirrels eat the seeds.

Lumber from the Grand Fir tree is considered a softwood and is used for paper making, packing crates, and construction.