Transcription of video clip The balsam fir

Back to video clip

© Jardin botanique de Montréal
Alain Cuerrier

Hello. My name is Alain Cuerrier, botanist, researcher in ethnobotany at the Jardin botanique de Montréal.

I’m here today to talk to you about an important tree, the balsam fir, better known as the “Christmas tree�.


But what I want to show you is that this tree is not only a Christmas tree, but is also a tree with incredible medicinal, and even nutritional, virtues.

Fir is so important to the First Nations because it’s the medicinal plant that is the most used, the most mentioned, named, by the First Nations as a whole.
Where balsam fir is found, so obviously we are talking about Québec’s First Nations, and we find for example in the medicinal virtues the use of its needles, the use of its gum, or resin, of the fir.
Also used are the balsam’s bark and cones.

So, really, all of its parts are used.
Some even used pollen and roots. So, nothing of that tree was left behind by the First Nations.

Today, Québec’s herborists also use firs, and will however tend to use spring needles, that are of a soft, shiny green.
They harvest the short spring twigs, and put them in honey to make a balsam fir flavoured honey.

And once you have made your honey, you can use it to coat your meat, game meat for example.
You can also use it to make grogs, by adding it in hot water, with lime.
So, for flu, cold, and breathing problems.
You could also use it to put on a child’s chest, to help it breathe during the night, for example.

But what about science pharmacology?
Well, ongoing research on balsam fir show that it’s a truly antiseptic plant, a plant that is used to fight all sorts of microbes, so bacteria, that will, antifungal, that will fight off some fungal-related infections.
It’s a plant that we will also use to fight viruses.

© Jardin botanique de Montréal
Balsam fir, not just a Christmas Tree

So, next time you see a balsam fir, look at it with a little more respect. It’s not just a Christmas tree!