Picea morrisonicola

Hayata 1908

Common names

Taiwan spruce, 台湾云杉 Taiwan yunshan [Chinese].

Taxonomic notes

Syn: P. glehnii sensu Matsum. & Hayata 1906, non Masters (Li 1975).

Description

"A large tree, up to 50 m in height and 1.5 m in diameter ... branches dense, horizontal, the branchlets glabrous. Leaves linear, 10-15 mm long, 2-3 mm broad, acute. Mature cones cylindric-oblong, purplish, about 7 cm long, the scales obovate, 15 mm long, rounded at apex, entire. Seeds 10-12 mm long including the wing" (Li 1975).

"Trunk bark gray to grayish red brown, irregular cracked, scaly, scales sub-rounded, about 0.3 cm. thick; lenticels inconspicuous; outer bark about 0.5 cm. thick, hard, with dull brown and irregularly tiered cross section, tangentially tiered streaks grayish yellow; newly formed periderm gayish yellow; inner bark about 1.0-1.5 cm. thick, fibrous, reddish brown, fibrous; cambium and newly formed phloem almost inconspicuous. Freshly cut sapwood pale yellowish white, wood rays inconspicuous" (Liu 1970).

See García Esteban et al. (2004) for a detailed characterization of the wood anatomy.

Distribution and Ecology

Taiwan: 2500-3000 m in the central ranges. Dispersed distribution in ravines and on mountain slopes in mixed or pure stands (Li 1975). Hardy to Zone 8 (cold hardiness limit between -12.1°C and -6.7°C) (Bannister and Neuner 2001).

Remarkable Specimens

Ethnobotany

Observations

Some herbarium records (HAST 1999) include: (a) Ilan Xian: Nanhutashan: on the way from mt.-hiking entrance at 6.7 km on 710 Forest Road to Yunling. Elevation 2350-2800 m. (b) Kaoxiung Xian: Taoyuan Hsiang: between Tienchih and Kuaiku. Elevation 2250 m. (c) Kaoxiung Xian: Taoyuan Hsiang: On the South Cross Island Rd. (Provincial Rd. #20). Near Meishan village. Secondary broadleaf and coniferous mixed forest. Elevation 2000 m. (d) Nantou Xian: enroute from Tungpu Hot Spring to Kuankao. Elevation 1300-2600 m. (e) Nantou Xian: Yushan Nat'l Park: en route from Lulin Lodge to Tatachia Saddle. Elevation 2700-2800 m.

Yushan National Park looks like a good place to see it.

Remarks

The epithet refers to Yu Shan (玉山), which the English-speaking peoples called Mount Morrison for much of the 19th and 20th centuries; it is the highest mountain in Taiwan, and has also lent its name to Juniperus morrisonicola and Pinus morrisonicola.

Citations

Herbarium of the Research Center For Biodiversity, Academia Sinica, Taipei [HAST]. 1999. Database output at http://www2.sinica.edu.tw:8080/hast/eindex.html, accessed 1999.03.15, now defunct.

Hayata, B. 1908. Flora Montana Formosae. Journal of the College of Science, Imperial University of Tokyo 25(19):220. Available: http://www.archive.org/stream/journalofcollege25toky#page/220/mode/2up, accessed 2010.12.19.

See also

The species account at Threatened Conifers of the World.

Huang 1994 (the Flora of Taiwan).