Published by Paul Ivinskas
Saturday, October 24, 2026

Everything Utah, every day.

Help Utahns understand their communities and hold government accountable. Our mission →

Wildlife & plants · Trees

White fir

Also called concolor fir, a native tree with long, flat needles and upright cones.

The crown of a white fir in Big Cottonwood Canyon
File photo: the crown of a white fir in Big Cottonwood Canyon · Cropped to fit. Photo: Andrey Zharkikh · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

White fir is native to Utah and other parts of the central and southern Rocky Mountains, as well as California. It favors cool, moist, protected sites and tolerates shade. Its silver-green or silver-blue foliage can resemble blue spruce from a distance.

Closer inspection offers better clues: the needles attach singly, are flat in cross-section and are typically two to three inches long. The cones stand upright on upper branches. Young bark is smooth and gray with resin blisters, becoming ridged and furrowed as the tree ages.

Seeing it

Compare needle shape and cone position from a safe public path. Do not climb, break branches or peel bark to check an identification.

Related profiles

A limber pine growing among red rock hoodoos on Bryce Canyon's Navajo Loop Trail
File photo: a limber pine growing among red rock hoodoos on Bryce Canyon's Navajo Loop Trail. Photo: Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Trees

Limber pine

A slow-growing native pine of harsh mountain sites, with five needles in each bundle.

Pinus flexilis

A Douglas-fir beside red rock hoodoos in Agua Canyon, Bryce Canyon National Park
File photo: a Douglas-fir beside red rock hoodoos in Agua Canyon, Bryce Canyon National Park. Photo: Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Trees

Douglas-fir

A native mountain conifer whose hanging cones have distinctive three-pointed bracts.

Pseudotsuga menziesii

Blue spruce trees on a ridge at Bryce Canyon National Park
File photo: blue spruce trees on a ridge at Bryce Canyon National Park. Photo: Quinn Dombrowski from Chicago, USA · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Trees

Blue spruce

A Utah native whose sharp, four-sided needles can be green as well as blue.

Picea pungens

White quaking aspen trunks beneath yellow autumn leaves
File photo: White quaking aspen trunks beneath yellow autumn leaves — Little Cottonwood Canyon, September 2005. Photo: Scott Catron · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Trees

Quaking aspen

Utah's state tree forms bright mountain groves whose separate trunks can share an underground root system.

Populus tremuloides

Saved on this device. Statewide news and alerts remain available.