A tree of pyramidal shape 50 to 120 ft high in the wild; young shoots very downy; terminal winter buds not resinous. Leaves 1⁄3 to 3⁄4 in. long, 1⁄16 in. wide, rounded and slightly notched at the apex; green on both surfaces, the stomata being only faintly visible beneath. Cones violet-purple, resinous, cylindrical, rounded at the top, 21⁄2 to 3 in. long, 11⁄2 in. wide, bracts hidden.
Native of Formosa, one of its localities on that island being Mt Morrison at 12,000 ft altitude, another Mt Nitaka at 11,000 ft. Wilson, in a collector’s note made in 1918, describes the tree as up to 120 ft high, with a trunk 18 ft in girth, the bark very pale grey. It appears to be most nearly related to A. mariesii, differing according to Hayata, the leading authority on the flora of Formosa, in having ‘longer cylindrical cones and black seeds and seed-wings’. It appears to be perfectly hardy but is uncommon in gardens. It first coned with the Earl of Rosse at Birr Castle, Eire, where it is now 38 × 43⁄4 ft (1966). There are other examples in the Chandlers Ford nursery of Messrs Hillier, at Westonbirt, Glos., and Crarae, Argyll.