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Taiwan White Fir Abies kawakamii (Hayata) Ito

Everyone knows Christmas trees well because people overseas have the habit of decorating a tower-like tree at home during Christmas every year. In Taiwan, there are also distantly relative trees similar to these Christmas trees. The difference is that they grow on the plain of high latitude regions overseas; the Taiwan White Fir of Taiwan on the other hand mainly grows in mountains at high altitude and quite common along the trails to Mt. Jade main peak in the Park. The species mainly distributes over cold and moist environments at low temperature and altitude of 2800-3500m. When walking along the trails to Mt. Jade’s main peak, you would see forest mixed with Taiwan Hemlock and Taiwan White Fir after passing the Pavilion of White Wood Forest. When reaching the Daciaobi (The Great Precipice), you would see a large field of Taiwan White Fir distribution, which is an evergreen coniferous tree with the largest coverage in Taiwan. The tree often grows to a pure forest in a large area; because of the tall and steep shape with dark-green leaves, such forest seems mysterious if watch from distance and therefore referred to as the “Black forest”. The tower-like canopy of Taiwan White Fir also becomes its most significant feature to distinguish from other trees.