Abies marocana Trab.
A. pinsapo subsp. marocana (Trab.) Emberger & Maire. A. pinsapo var. marocana (Trab.) Ceballos & Martín Bolaños.
Eng.: Moroccan fir. Spa.: Pinsapo rifeño, abeto rifeño. Fre.: Sapin du Maroc, sapin du Rif. Ara.: Echuh, chohh, chokh, esnubara, snuber.
Evergreen tree, monoecious, with a stylised conical shape, more than 40 m in height. Straight trunk 1-1.5 m in diameter, with brown-greyish bark, deeply fissured in older specimens. Branches mostly verticillate, born and arranged perpendicular to the trunk. Branchlets opposite or verticillate in 3, from which leaves are born perpendicularly and radially, ± twisted at the base, giving the set of branchlets and leaves a somewhat flattened appearance in the lower branches, and a ± cylindrical appearance in the rest of the tree. Leaves (14-18 mm) acicular, sessile, thick, slightly twisted at the base, rigid, mostly acute, prickly; others obtuse, but never emarginate. Male cones ovoid (1-1.5 cm), reddish and sessile. Female cones cylindrical (2-3 cm), greenish and sessile. Strobili cylindrical (10-16 × 3-5 cm), erect, becoming dehiscent very soon after maturing, with only the erect axes on which the scales were arranged remaining on the tree for most of the year.
Flowering:
April to May.
Fruiting:
The strobilus is completely formed by June, displaying at that time a greenish-whitish colour, which becomes brownish in August, with dehiscence and dispersal of seeds occurring between the end of August and October.
Habitat:
Calcareous mountains, with abundant fog and precipitation, (1,000)1,200 to 2,100 m in altitude, in subhumid to hyperhumid bioclimate, in supramediterranean and oromediterranean floors. It forms pure dense forests or, sometimes, it grows in mixed forests with Cedrus atlantica, Pinus nigra, P. pinaster, Quercus rotundifolia or Q. faginea.
Distribution:
Very restricted to the western Rif (mountains of the Xaüen region: Talassemtan Massif – Mount Lakrâa, Mount Tazaot, etc. – Mount Kelti.)
Observations:
In the Andalusian trees (A. pinsapo Boiss.) the bracts are emarginate and mucronate and 1/3 to 1/4 shorter than the ovuliferous scales, which are as long as they are wide. In the Rif trees the bracts are subulate and 1/2 shorter than the ovuliferous scales, which are as wide as they are long. Other differences are the size of the trees and the size of leaves and strobili. It has been tried to separate the two populations at a specific level (Maire 1961, Fennane et al., 1999, Valdés et al., 2002, Dobignard & Chatelain, 2012), even though for many other authors (Ruiz de la Torre, 1979; López, 1982; Franco, 1987; Farjon, 1990, 2010, The Plant List, 2012) this separation does not seem justified. Another controversy is that of A. tazaotana Cózar ex Villar (A. pinsapo Boiss. var. tazaotana (Cózar ex Villar) Pourt. & Trump), endemic to Mount Tazaot (western Rif), which was basically differentiated by its large size (30-50 m), ovoid shape, flexible and sloping branchlets and larger strobili (16-20 × 4-6 cm). This fir grows only ten kilometers from A. marocana and there are trees with intermediate characteristics between the two taxa. Both factors led Sánchez Cózar to conclude that the specific range was not the most appropriate for his new species, classified as a subspecies or variety by later authors and, at present, as a simple local morphological variation.
Conservation status:
Locally common species but with a very restricted distribution. In the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is assessed as A. pinsapo var. marocana and evaluated as Endangered (EN) (Alaui et al., 2011). In Morocco it is included in its List of native species that need authorization for commercial use (Law 29-2005 and Decree 2-12-484 of 21-May-2015).