Scientific name: Picea likiangensis var. rubescens Rehder & E.H.Wilson 1914
Synonyms: Picea balfouriana Rehder & E.H.Wilson, Picea balfouriana f. bicolor S.Chen, Picea likiangensis subsp. balfouriana (Rehder & E.H.Wilson) Rushforth, Picea likiangensis subsp. rubescens (Rehder & E.H.Wilson) Silba, Picea likiangensis var. balfouriana (Rehder & E.H.Wilson) Hillier, Picea purpurea subsp. balfouriana (Rehder & E.H.Wilson) Silba, Picea purpurea var. balfouriana (Rehder & E.H.Wilson) Silba, Picea sikangensis W.C.Cheng, Tsuga balfouriana (Rehder & E.H.Wilson) W.R.McNab
Common names: Balfour spruce (English), Chuan xi yun shan (Chinese)
Description
Tree to 50 m tall, with trunk to 2.5 m in diameter. Bark gray with orange-brown patches soon breaking up into irregular blocks separated by deep vertical furrows. Crown conical, with long, thin, upswept branches bearing short side branches all around. New branchlets pale brownish yellow, new shoots stout, densely hairy, the hairs sometimes glandular. Buds 4-6 mm long, resinous. Needles 1.5-2 mm wide, square to slightly flattened side to side or top to bottom, with none to four lines of stomates on each outer face. Needles dark green on sides without stomatal lines, bluish green with wax when stomatal lines are present. Pollen cones 20-25 mm long red. Seed cones 4-8 × 3-4 cm long, often oblique, seed scales thin, coriaceous, obtrullate, repand-lacerate. Seed body 2-4 mm long, the wing 5-10 mm longer.
China: S Qinghai, W Sichuan, SE Xizang (Tibet); 2,900-4,100 m.
Conservation Status
Red List Category & Criteria: Vulnerable
In the absence of accurate range data, this taxon is listed as Vulnerable under criterion A2cd, based on an inferred reduction of >30 % over the past three generations (75 years) due to the impacts of logging and reduced regeneration.
A subalpine spruce that occurs with many other conifers. The reduction caused by logging in the past has left many mountain slopes formerly covered in forest open to grazing by cattle, reducing the possibilities of forest regeneration.
Likiang spruce is a timber tree used for construction, machines, poles, furniture, and wood pulp for the paper industry. The bark is used to produce tannin, resin is tapped or distilled from the wood, and the needles produce aromatic oils. In Europe and North America this species and its varieties can be found growing in arboreta and botanic gardens, as well as in large private gardens with tree collections. The correct naming to variety of these trees is often problematic.
The Government of China has recently imposed a logging ban in western China.
Cultivars
Not known
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.