A medium-sized evergreen coniferous tree growing to 15-30 m tall with a trunk diameter of up to 0.8 m, smaller and sometimes shrubby at tree-line. The leaves are needle-like, flattened, 1.5-2.5 cm long and 2 mm wide by 0.5 mm thick, matt dark green above, and with two white bands of stomata below, and slightly notched at the tip. The leaf arrangement is spiral on the shoot, but with each leaf variably twisted at the base so they lie flat to either side of and above the shoot, with none below the shoot. The shoots are orange-red with dense velvety pubescence. The cones are 5-11 cm long and 3-4 cm broad, dark purple-blue before maturity; the scale bracts are short, and hidden in the closed cone.

Plants for a Future