Picea schrenkiana


Picea schrenkiana, Schrenk's spruce, or Asian spruce, is a spruce native to the Tian Shan mountains of Central Asia and also to western China. It grows at elevations of, usually in pure forests, sometimes mixed with the Tien Shan variety of Siberian fir. Its name was given in honour of Alexander [von Schrenk].

Description

Picea schrenkiana is a large evergreen tree growing to tall, with a trunk diameter of up to. It has a narrow conical crown with level branches and sometimes pendulous branchlets. The shoots are pale buff-brown, and glabrous. The leaves are needle-like, long, rhombic in cross-section, dark green with inconspicuous stomatal lines.
The cones are cylindrical–conic, long and broad, purple when young, maturing dark brown and opening to broad 5–7 months after pollination; the scales are moderately stiff and smoothly rounded.

Subspecies

There are two subspecies:
  • Picea schrenkiana subsp. schrenkiana. Eastern Tian Shan, in Kazakhstan and Xinjiang. Leaves longer, long.
  • Picea schrenkiana subsp. tianshanica Bykov. Western Tian Shan, in Kyrgyzstan. Leaves shorter, long.
It is closely related to, and in many respects intermediate between the Morinda spruce from further south in the Himalaya, and the Siberian spruce further north in Siberia.

Uses

Schrenk's spruce is an important tree in central Asia for timber and paper production, where few other large trees exist. Its slower growth compared to the Norway spruce reduces its importance outside of its native range.

Cultivation

Picea schrenkiana is grown as an ornamental tree in large gardens and public parks in Europe.