Trees to 50 m tall; trunk to 1 m d.b.h.; bark gray or gray-brown, rough, longitudinally fissured; crown conical; long branchlets reddish brown or purplish brown, rarely initially yellowish brown, finally dark gray; short branchlets 3-8 mm in diam., glabrous or densely yellowish brown hairy at apex; winter buds brown or dark brown, glossy, ovoid. Leaves 1.2-3.5 cm × 1-1.5 mm, keeled on both sides. Seed cones reddish or purplish, maturing purplish brown or light gray-brown, cylindric or ovoid-cylindric, 2.5-7.5 × 1.5-3.5 cm. Seed scales 35-90, slightly convex, 0.8-1.6 × 0.8-1.1 cm, as wide as or wider than long, ± strigose to pubescent and tuberculate abaxially, apex truncate or obtuse-rounded. Bracts often exserted, purplish brown, oblong-lanceolate, straight, apex acute or acuminate. Seeds light brown with irregular purplish spots, obliquely obovate, obliquely obovoid, 7-10 mm including wing. Pollination Apr-May, seed maturity Oct.
Grows sparingly in moist forests at low elevations, especially by streams. It forms pure stands at higher elevations, especially on moist soils, growing best above 250 and up to the tree line.
Can be grown by seedlings. Seeds needs stratification.
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