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Scientific name: Picea brachytyla (Franchet) E.Pritzel 1900
Synonyms: Abies brachytyla Franch., Picea brachytyla subsp. pachyclada (Patschke) Silba, Picea brachytyla var. brachytyla, Picea brachytyla var. latisquamea Stapf, Picea brachytyla var. pachyclada (Patschke) Silba, Picea ajanensis Mast., Picea pachyclada Patschke, Picea sargentiana Rehder & E.H.Wilson
Infraspecific taxa: Picea brachytyla var. complanata (Mast.) W.C.Cheng ex. Rehder, Picea brachytyla var. rhombisquamea Stapf
Common names: Sargent spruce, Chinese weeping spruce (English), Mai diao yun shan (Chinese)
Tree to 35(-40) m tall, with trunk to 1(-1.2) m in diameter. Bark in old trees remaining flaky or breaking up into dark gray blocks divided by furrows. Crown broadly conical, opening up with age, with thin, horizontal or slightly downswept branches bearing dangling side branches. New branchlets very pale yellowish brown, hairless or thinly hairy. Buds 4-8 mm long, slightly resinous. Needles dark green to slightly bluish green with wax above, white below, (0.8-)1-2.2(-2.5) cm long, curved forward, flat, with five or six lines of stomates in each of two stomatal bands on the side facing the twig and without stomates on the outer side, pointed to a little prickly. Pollen cones 10-25 mm long, red. Seed cones (4-)6-10(-15) cm long, green or with a purplish blush before maturity, ripening brown or purplish brown. Seed scales angularly egg-shaped, thin but stiff, the tips often curled back a little. Seed body 3-4 mm long, the wing about 7-9 mm longer.
The scientific name means “short knob”.
Central China, from western Henan to southeastern Xizang (Tibet) and northwestern Yunnan, and adjacent Myanmar and India. Forming pure groves among other conifers and hardwoods in montane forests; (1,300-)2,300-3,000(-3,800) m.
Red List Category & Criteria: Vulnerable
The inferred reduction of more than 30% in the population over the past 100 years (=three generations) resulting in a severely fragmented population makes the species Vulnerable to extinction.
Forms small areas of forest or mixed with other conifers and deciduous trees. Extensive logging in the past has significantly reduced the size and range of former populations and led to fragmentation.
Picea brachytyla is a high mountain species, occurring between 1,300 m and 3,800 m a.s.l. The soils are grey brown mountain podzols. The climate is cold and wet, with annual precipitation from 1,000 mm (N) to more than 2,500 mm (S), where the monsoon influence is stronger. It is a constituent of the montane coniferous forest of the eastern parts of the Himalaya and the mountains of the SW Plateau of China, with Abies densa, Abies forrestii, Picea likiangensis, Pinus wallichiana, Tsuga dumosa, and Larix potaninii as major species. Taxus wallichiana is commonly found as an understorey tree in the Himalayan part of its range.
Past logging has severely depleted the range and size of populations, making the surviving populations vulnerable to population pressures, such as farming, and the occurrence of fire or flooding.
This species is a timber tree, used for construction, interior flooring, aircraft, machines, furniture, and wood pulp for the paper industry. In China this species has been intensively exploited, depleting the natural stands, and now is cultivated for afforestation. In Europe and North America, it is often present in larger arboreta, mainly derived from seed collections made by European plant hunters who traveled in China in the early decades of the 20th century. It is a more attractive and shapely species than most spruces and new introductions from different parts of its range should be recommended for horticultural uses; it is extremely hardy and tolerant of poor soils.
The Government of China has recently imposed a ban on logging in western China. The species is included in a number of protected areas across its extensive range.
Copyright © Aljos Farjon, James E. Eckenwalder, IUCN, Conifers Garden. All rights reserved.
