Field guide: Fraser fir

A brief look at the perfect Christmas tree

Harold Smith / Creative Commons

Happy holidays, y’all! For this, my last post of 2024, I figured I’d go timely and look at a species that’s been called the “Cadillac of Christmas trees.” That’s thanks to its soft needles—which, winningly, stay intact longer than some of its rival species—and its perfectly Christmas-y scent. Want more proof? Sixteen times, the official White House Christmas tree has been a Fraser fir, more than any other species.

And while the South might be known for its white Christmases, we are the homeland of the Fraser fir. Farmed, the species supports a $300 million industry in North Carolina, including 7,000 jobs. It’s always been a tough business, in part because in the wild a Fraser fir likes to cling to high and cloud-wrapped peaks—hardly a suitable place for a tree farm. Lately, though, the hotter weather and bigger storms delivered by climate change have made things even harder. So too has a kind of root rot known as Phytophthora. “It’s four times as hard no…