The red fir or Picea Excelsa is a native of northern Europe and also grows on the upper slopes of the Alps. The silver fir which has the botanical name Abies Alba, of southern and central Europe at altitude ranging from 800 to 1,500 meters.

The silver fir has a pale grey bark which is quite smooth when the tree is young, but it becomes roughened and darkened with age. The red fir has a rough, reddish-brown bark. The two trees have differently-formed cones: in the red fir they are pendulous and soft to the touch, but the silver fir’s cones are hard and stick up vertically. Moreover, the needle shaped leaves of the red fir grow in a spiral arrangement round the stem, whereas those of the silver fir are arranged in two files on the same level of the branch and the underparts are marked with two broad white lines. Many silver firs grow to more than 40 meters high.