It is found in central and western Nepal between 2400 and 4400 m. Its eastern limit is unclear, through confusion with A. densa; in the west it extends to Chitral, Pakistan. Between 3000 and 3600m it often foons an almost pure belt. In places it extends to the tree line; elsewhere it is succeeded at higher altitudes by Betula utilis forest. It is generally found at higher altitudes than A. pindrow.
In natural forest less than about 40 years old it is fairly plentiful, but in older undisturbed forest it almost ceases. The young seedlings are very sensitive to fire. Otherwise similar to A. pindrow.
There are 8500 -12,000 seeds kg-1. Nursery treatment is similar to that for A. pindrow, though even longer in the nursery may be needed. It has been planted in the Sagarmatha National Park at high altitudes and also in Solukhumbu on a fairly large scale, where 55 per cent survival has been recorded. Direct sowing has also given satisfactory results in the Sagarmatha National Park, and the use of natural seedlings (wildings) collected from the forest and transplanted into containers has been successful in Solukhumbu. Because of the slow growth of Abies seedlings, weeding two or three times a year for up to fIve years may be necessary after the trees have been planted in the fIeld.
At 72 years old, it attains a mean diameter of 39 cm, and a biomass of 327 t ha-1, of which 85 per cent is stem timber. This is equivalent to a mean annual increment of about 3.9 t ha-1 of stemwood.
Its value for building timber is similar to that of A. pindrow. Though this is of considerable importance locally, remoteness of the forests and extraction difficulties prevent commercial-scale exploitation for timber at present As a plantation tree, while silviculturaIly suited to high altitudes, its very slow growth is a drawback.