Picea meyeri

Rehder et E.H. Wilson ex Sargent 1914

Common names

Meyer spruce (Farjon 1990); baiqian 白扦 [Chinese].

Taxonomic notes

Synonymy (Wu and Raven 1999):

• P. meyeri var. mongolica H.Q. Wu;
• P. meyeri f. pyramidalis (H.W. Jen et C.G. Bai) L.K. Fu et Nan Li;
• P. meyeri var. pyramidalis H.W. Gen et C.G. Bai;
• P. mongolica (H.Q. Wu) W.D. Xu

Type: F.N. Meyer 22672, 1908.02.25, temple of "Tchai-ling-tse" on Wutai Shan (Shanxi) at 3000 m elevation (Sargent 1914). Wutai is 3058 m tall, so thus must be near the summit.

Description

Trees to 30 m tall and 60 cm dbh, with a conical crown. Bark gray-brown, irregularly flaking. Branchlets yellow-brown, pubescent or glabrous (variable on a single plant). Leaves spreading radially, ascending on upper side of branchlets, spreading and curved upward on lower side, quadrangular, slightly curved, not pungent, 13-30×2 mm, stomatal lines on all surfaces, apex obtuse or subacute. Seed cones green, maturing brown-yellow, oblong-cylindric, 6-9×2.5-3.5 cm. Seed scales obovate, 1.6×1.2 cm, striate on exposed part, apex rounded or triangular. Seeds obovoid, 3.5 mm with a 10 mm wing. Pollination April, seed maturity September-October (Sargent 1914, Wu and Raven 1999).

Distribution and Ecology

N China: Shanxi (Wutai Shan), Hebei, Shaanxi, Nei Mongol and possible S Gansu, at 1600-2700 m elevation (Farjon 1990, Wu and Raven 1999).

Remarkable Specimens

Ethnobotany

Observations

Remarks

The epithet remembers Dutch botanist Frans N. Meijer (1875-1918) who emigrated to the USA in 1900, changed his name to Frank Meyer, and began a career of plant collecting for the USDA and Arnold Arboretum, traveling through some of the wildest and most lawless regions of western China, Turkestan, Manchuria and Korea. Among the more than 2,000 taxa he collected was what would become the type specimen of Picea meyeri, found on February 25, 1907 on Wutaishan (五台山) in Shanxi. Meyer spent most of the rest of his life on collecting expeditions, and died during one of them 11 years later.

Citations

Farjon, Aljos. 1990. Pinaceae: drawings and descriptions of the genera Abies, Cedrus, Pseudolarix, Keteleeria, Nothotsuga, Tsuga, Cathaya, Pseudotsuga, Larix and Picea. Königstein: Koeltz Scientific Books.

Sargent, C.S. (ed.) 1914. Plantae Wilsonianae, Publications of the Arnold Arboretum No. 4. Jamaica Plain, Mass. V. 2, pg. 28. Available online at https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org, accessed 2010.12.22.

See also

The species account at Threatened Conifers of the World.