Picea glehnii

(F. Schmidt) Masters 1880

Common names

アカエゾマツ aka-ezomatsu [Japanese] (Iwatsuki et al. 1995).

Taxonomic notes

Syn.: Abies glehnii F. Schmidt, Reis. Amur-Land., Bot.: 176, t. 48-12 (1868) (Iwatsuki et al. 1995).

Description

Monoecious evergreen tree to 30 m tall and 100 cm dbh. Bark grey-brown, fissured and peeling off in scales. Branchlets red-brown, grooved, densely brownish puberulent; pulvini 0.6-0.7 mm long. Leaves coriaceous, linear, quadrangular, 8-12 mm long, ca. 1 mm across, apex pointed, deep green, with two distinct white stomatal bands on upper surface and two indistinct ones on lower surface; resin canals two, marginal, one larger. Flowers June, solitary, terminal on previous year's shoots. Pollen cones cylindric, with slender stalk ca. 2 mm long, red-brown, 7-14 mm long, 4 mm wide, with numerous stamens. Seed cones subsessile, cylindric, red-purple maturing (in September) brown, 3-5 cm long, 2-2.5 cm wide. Cone scales numerous, persistent, thinly woody, orbicular-obovate, cuneate to base, 8-10 mm long and wide; bract scales small, acute, ca. 3 mm long, 1.5 mm wide. Seeds obovate, pale brown, ca. 3 mm long, 1.5 mm wide; wings obovate, pale brown, 5-6 mm long, 3-4 mm wide. Chromosome number: 2n = 24 (Iwatsuki et al. 1995). See García Esteban et al. (2004) for a detailed characterization of the wood anatomy.

A form with green or greenish yellow ripening cones is named f. chlorocarpa Miyabe et Kudô, Icon. Forest Trees Hokkaido 1: 16, t. 5 1-14. 1920) (Iwatsuki et al. 1995).

Distribution and Ecology

Russia: S Sakhalin and the Kuriles; Japan: Kuriles, Hokkaido and N Honshu (Iwate Prefecture, Mt. Hayachine). Grows from near sea level to 1600 m elevation (Iwatsuki et al. 1995). Hardy to Zone 4 (cold hardiness limit between -34.3°C and -28.9°C) (Bannister and Neuner 2001).

Remarkable Specimens

The oldest known living specimen, 581 years, was documented in a tree-ring chronology covering the period 1418-1998 (crossdated after 1511), collected in extreme eastern Hokkaido, Japan by Koh Yasue (doi.org/10.25921/ygwj-5a16). This chronology was used in a dendroclimatic temperature reconstruction (PAGES 2k Consortium 2013).

Ethnobotany

Observations

Remarks

The epithet remembers Peter von Glehn (1835-1876), German botanist who explored widely in the Sakhalin and Amur regions, and first collected this species.

Citations

Masters, M. T. 1880. Japanese Conifers -- X. Gardeners Chronicle 13: 300, t. 54. Available: Biodiversity Heritage Library, accessed 2020.11.26.

PAGES 2k Consortium. 2013. Continental-scale temperature variability during the past two millennia. Nature Geoscience 6:339-346. doi: 10.1038/NGEO1797

See also

Elwes and Henry 1906-1913 at the Biodiversity Heritage Library. This series of volumes, privately printed, provides some of the most engaging descriptions of conifers ever published. Although they only treat species cultivated in the U.K. and Ireland, and the taxonomy is a bit dated, still these accounts are thorough, treating such topics as species description, range, varieties, exceptionally old or tall specimens, remarkable trees, and cultivation. Despite being over a century old, they are generally accurate, and are illustrated with some remarkable photographs and lithographs.