The Pacific silver fir is generally considered the most beautiful fir growing in Arboretum Mustila. It has duly earned its binomial name, where amabilis stands for amiable or lovely. The dark green needles of the Pacific silver fir are sublimely decorative. Its growth habit is majestic: the branches overlap evenly in whorls, creating a harmonious and peaceful appearance. When mature, this fir grows vigorously into a stately, dense tree, but the young seedlings grow frustratingly slowly, and are as demanding and whimsical as might be expected from a princess of firs.
The Pacific silver fir originates from the northwestern parts of North America. It thrives in humid woods in the valleys and ridges of the Pacific coast ranges. In Finland it only grows in the very south. The provenance growing in Mustila has proved astonishingly winter hardy which would suggest that the seeds were collected in the more continental areas of its range. The oldest trees were sown in 1892 and planted in 1915. They now reach up to over 30 metres next to the grave of A.F. Tigerstedt, the founder of Arboretum Mustila. The majority of later plantings are their seedlings.
