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Picea alcoquiana

Picea alcoquiana - Alcock spruce, Alcock's spruce
  • Picea alcoquiana - Alcock spruce, Alcock's spruce  - Click to enlarge
  • Picea alcoquiana cones - Click to enlarge
  • Picea alcoquiana tree - Click to enlarge

€23.00

Weight1.5 kg
Height15 - 20 cm
PropagationGraft

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Scientific name: Picea alcoquiana  (H.J.Veitch ex Lindley) Carrière  1867

Synonyms: Abies alcoquiana H.J.Veitch ex Lindl., Abies bicolor Maxim., Picea alcoquiana f. chlorocarpa (Hayashi) Yonek., Picea alcoquiana var. alcoquiana, Picea bicolor (Maxim.) Mayr, Picea bicolor f. chlorocarpa Hayashi, Picea japonica Regel, Pinus alcoquiana (H.J.Veitch ex Lindl.) Parl., Pinus bicolor (Maxim.) Parl.

Infraspecific taxa: Picea alcoquiana var. acicularis (Maxim. ex. Beissn.) Fitschen, Picea alcoquiana var. reflexa (Shiras.) Fitschen

Common names: Alcock spruce, Alcock's spruce (English), Matsuhada, Iramomi (Japanese)

 

Description

Tree to 30(-35) m tall, with trunk to 1 m in diameter. Bark pale gray to grayish brown, breaking up into vertical plates on old trees. Crown broadly conical to egg-shaped, with long, thin, horizontal branches, rising when young, sweeping gently down with age, although still turning up at the tips. New branchlets yellowish brown to reddish brown, generally hairless but sometimes thinly hairy on vigorous shoots or those bearing seed cones, especially in the grooves between the leaf bases. Buds 5-6 mm long, slightly resinous. Needles dark bluish green, sometimes with a waxy film, 1-1.5(-2) cm long, curved slightly forward, square, with one to three lines of stomates on the sides facing the twig and three to six lines on the other two sides, prickly on young trees but just pointed on older ones. Pollen cones 10-15 mm long, red. Seed cones (4-)7-10(-12) cm long, reddish purple before maturity, ripening cinnamon brown. Seed scales broadly spoon- to diamond-shaped, thinly woody and pliable, straight or curled back at the tip. Seed body 3-4 mm long, the wing 8-12 mm longer.

This rare subalpine spruce co-occurs with the much more common Yezo spruce (Picea jezoensis), leading to persistent confusion in the identity and correct name of Picea alcoquiana because John Gould Veitch (1839 - 1870) sent back specimens and seeds of both species to England from Japan under the same name in 1860. John Lindley (1799 - 1865) described the species in 1861 under the name that Veitch had chosen to honor sir Rutherford Alcock (1809 - 1897) but drew his description and illustration from both species. Because of this, many authors use the next oldest available name for the species, Picea bicolor, but Picea alcoquiana remains the correct name because the original material representing Alcock spruce has been chosen as the type of the name in accordance with rules of botanical nomenclature.

Mountains of central Honshū (Japan). Scattered among Abies homolepis, Abies veitchii, Picea jezoensis, and other conifers and hardwoods in subalpine forest; (700-)1,000-2,000(-2,180) m.

 

Conservation Status

Red List Category & Criteria: Near Threatened

The species as a whole, like its most common and widespread nominate variety, does not meet the criteria for a threatened category, but may warrant listing as threatened if the decline due to logging continues. Although its area of occupancy has been reduced due to logging, this is not inferred to have exceeded 30% and it therefore does not meet the criteria for a threatened category.

Picea alcoquiana is a scattered mountain species, occurring at elevations from 700 m to 2,180 m a.s.l. The soils are of volcanic origin and podzolic. The climate is cool, with cold, snowy winters, and wet (annual precipitation 1,000 mm to 2,500 mm), while typhoons are frequent. The forests on these mountains are mixed coniferous, with Picea jezoensis subsp. hondoensis as the most common of the spruces, Tsuga diversifolia and Larix kaempferi, both also common, Pinus parviflora and Abies veitchii in some areas, Abies mariesii usually at higher elevations, and broad-leaved trees, e.g. Betula ermanii, Betula grossa, Sorbus commixta, Quercus mongolica var. grosseserrata, Alnus hirsuta var. sibirica, and Prunus maximowiczii.

Alcock spruce is a timber tree of minor importance due to its scarcity, but it has undoubtedly been logged with other spruces (Picea jezoensis subsp. hondoensis) and conifers. Much of its wood is processed to pulp for the paper industry, but more specialized uses are furniture making and (in Japan) musical instruments. This species has been introduced to Europe and the U.S.A. but remains uncommon there and mostly restricted to arboreta and some large parks of private estates, where it may still be known under the later name Picea bicolor.

The main threat to the species, past and present, is logging. This has particularly affected the rarer varieties with their very limited extents of occurrence and areas of occupancy. Some subpopulations occur in protected areas.

 

Cultivars:

Picea alcoquiana ’Bruj 1’                           
Picea alcoquiana ’Bruj 2’            
Picea alcoquiana ’Dwarf Jewel’                
Picea alcoquiana ’Howell’s Dwarf Seedling’       
Picea alcoquiana ’Howell’s Dwarf Tigertail’   
Picea alcoquiana ’Joyau’   
Picea alcoquiana ’Prostrata’   

 

References

  • Farjon, A. (2010). A Handbook of the World's Conifers. Koninklijke Brill, Leiden.
  • Eckenwalder, J.E. (2009) Conifers of the World: The Complete Reference. Timber Press, Portland.
  • IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. Cambridge, UK /Gland, Switzerland

Copyright © Aljos Farjon, James E. Eckenwalder, IUCN, Conifers Garden. All rights reserved.


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