Kingdom Plantae Order Pinales Genus Abies Higher classification Fir | Division Pinophyta Family Pinaceae Scientific name Abies cilicica Rank Species | |
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Similar Fir, Abies cephalonica, Abies numidica, Abies borisii‑regis, Abies homolepis | ||
Abies cilicica, commonly known as Cilician fir or Taurus fir, is a species of conifer in the Pinaceae family. It is found in Lebanon, Syria, and Turkey. Abies cilicica and Cedrus libani, together with Acer hyrcanum subsp. Tauricolum and Sorbus torminalis subsp. Orientalis, are the predominant trees in the Abeti-Cedrion forests of the Middle and Eastern Taurus Mountains of Turkey. These forests occur between 800 and 2100 meters elevation. Over 5000 years of logging, burning, and grazing have reduced these forests to enclaves.
In 2009 at Berenice Troglodytica, the Egypto-Roman port on the Red Sea, archaeologists found: "two blocks of resin from the Syrian fir tree (Abies cilicica), one weighing about 190 g and the other about 339 g, recovered from 1st-century AD contexts in one of the harbor trenches. Produced in areas of greater Syria and Asia Minor, this resin and its oil derivative were used in mummification, as an antiseptic, a diuretic, to treat wrinkles, extract worms and promote hair growth."
