Picea aurantiaca

Mast. (1906)

Common names

Orange spruce, 白皮云杉 baipi yunshan (lit. whitebark spruce) [Chinese]; since it has commonly been treated as a variety of Picea asperata, the name "dragon spruce" is also common in horticulture.

Taxonomic notes

Type: China, Sichuan, Daxue Shan, Cheto Shan, E. H. Wilson 3029. Syn. Picea asperata var. aurantiaca (Mast.) B.K.Boom.

This species is likely synonymous with Picea asperata. Unfortunately there have been no molecular or other detailed studies of P. asperata to provide evidence that P. aurantiaca is either similar or distinct at any rank; see Christian (2025) for further discussion. This species has not been subject to research for many years, and the Chinese researchers seem to be treating it as synonymous with P. asperata. We only await a study sufficiently detailed to confirm it.

Description

Trees to 25 m tall and 70 cm dbh, typically with a single straight round trunk and a narrowly conical crown. Bark scaly, grooved and ridged, exfoliating. Twigs thick, stiff, more or less orange (turning gray with age), deeply grooved, sparsely pubescent then soon glabrous. Vegetative buds broad-ovoid, 4-6 mm diameter, hidden within leaves, resinous. Leaves directed forward, all around the shoot but parted below on shade foliage, 8-18 × 1.2-2.3 mm, straight or curved, quadrangular (rhombic in cross-section), stomata in 3-6 lines on each surface, leaves at first glaucous but maturing gray-green. Pollen cones axillary near ends of shoots, 10-15 mm long, reddish turning yellow. Seed cones terminal, first erect but later becoming pendulous, cylindrical-oblong with an obtuse apex, 10-12×4-4.5 cm when scales open, reddish brown. Seed scales rhombic-ovoid, 2-2.4 × 1.5-1.8 cm at mid-cone, upper margin erose denticulate, bracts rudimentary and included. Seeds ovoid-conical, 3-4 mm long, brown, with a 12-14 mm transparent yellow-brown wing (Farjon 2010).

Picea aurantiaca is distinguished from P. asperata by glaucous and more stout foliage and by glabrous and glaucous twigs (Wu and Raven 1999), and also by the larger seed scales (2-2.4 × 1.5-1.8 cm, vs. 1.2-2 × 0.8-1.6 cm in P. asperata) and the different vegetative buds (obovate vs. conical) (Farjon 2010).

Distribution and Ecology

China: Sichuan, confined to a small area west of Kangding. Forests in this area are increasingly under pressure from logging. Populations have declined and, as yet, there is no protection for the species (Conifer Specialist Group 1998).

Remarkable Specimens

No data as of 2026-10-14.

Ethnobotany

No data as of 2026-10-14.

Observations

No data as of 2026-10-14.

Remarks

The epithet means "orange", a reference to the color of the twigs.

Wilson, who first collected this species, noted during his field surveys that "The Spruce (Picea aurantiaca) is a particularly handsome species, with square, dark green needles on spreading branches and red-brown pendulous cones clustered near the top of the tree" (Wilson 1913).

Citations

Christian, Tom. 2025. Trees and Shrubs Online: Picea asperata aggregate. https://www.treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/picea/picea-asperata-aggregate/, accessed 2026.10.14.

Conifer Specialist Group. 1998. Picea aurantiaca. In: IUCN 2010. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2010.4. www.iucnredlist.org, accessed 2010.12.21.

Masters, M. T. 1906. On the conifers of China. Journal of the Linnaean Society, Botany 37:420. Available online at www.botanicus.org.

Wilson, E. H. 1913. A Naturalist in Western China. 2 vols. London: Methuen & Co.

See also

The species account at Threatened Conifers of the World.