Silver Tip Christmas Trees

California's own — a high-elevation red fir with a silvery cast and a sculptural, tiered silhouette unlike anything else on the lot.

Silver tip grows above about 6,000 feet in the Sierra, which is why it appears on Northern California farms and almost nowhere else in the country. The branches are widely spaced and rigidly horizontal, giving a layered, almost architectural shape.

That open structure divides people. If you decorate sparsely with large ornaments and want each one visible, nothing else comes close. If you want a dense wall of green, this is the wrong tree. It is also the species most likely to be sold as a designer tree at a designer price.