Young tree at Royal Botanical Gardens Kew [C.J. Earle, 2010.06.14].
Foliage and nearly mature cone on the tree shown above [C.J. Earle, 2010.06.14].
Foliage and female flower on an arboretum tree, Seattle [C.J. Earle, 2004.04.05].
Prior year's cone on a tree in habitat, western Sichuan [C.J. Earle, 1989.04.27].
Bursting foliar buds on an arboretum tree, Seattle [C.J. Earle, 2004.04.04].
Line drawing; for full size image go to the Flora of China (Wu and Raven 1999).
(var. hirtella)
(var. likiangensis)
(var. montigena)
(var. rubescens)
Picea likiangensis
Lijiang spruce; 丽江云杉 Lijiang yunshan [Chinese].
Four varieties:
See POWO for synonymy of these varieties.
Lockwood et al. (2013), in their molecular phylogeny of Picea, placed the type variety and vars. hirtella and rubescens together in a clade sister to P. farreri. Their analysis did not consider var. montigena, but they placed var. hirtella in a clade with vars. likiangensis and rubescens and P. linzhiensis. A very detailed molecular analysis by Shao et al. (2019) placed var. likiangensis sister to a clade of P. farreri and P. brachytyla var. complanata, while var. rubescens was sister to P. purpurea; vars. hirtella and montigena were not sampled. Overall, there seem to be close associations between all or nearly all Picea found on and around the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, possibly reflecting a period of active speciation in response to the rise of the Plateau and consequent creation of new habitats and barriers to dispersal; this happened about 15 million years ago (Lockwood et al. 2013). A molecular clock suggests another episode of Picea speciation in this region at the Miocene/Pliocene transition about 6 million years ago, at which time increasing atmospheric CO2 levels caused a general climatic warming and increased aridity in central China, along with an intensified monsoonal circulation (Ao et al. 2021).
Rushforth (2008) suggests that var. montigena may be a hybrid between P. likiangensis and P. asperata; as almost nothing is known of this variety, its status must be regarded as tentative. Jean Hoch (2019) maintains that "very clear taxonomic differences" distinguish Picea sikangensis as a taxon distinct from P. likiangensis var. rubescens in Sichuan, and posts photos from Sichuan. Neither of these points seem to have yet been addressed by other analysts. Also, the inconsistencies between the molecular studies cited here suggest that the infraspecific taxa listed above are not necessarily sister taxa; one or more may warrant treatment at species rank, or may be sister to a different species. Thus it is well to think of these varieties as discrete taxa united by strong morphological similarities and similar geographic distributions.
Trees to 50 m tall and 250 cm dbh, with a pyramidal crown. Bark gray or brown-gray, breaking into thick, irregular plates. Twigs initially pale yellow or brownish yellow, turning gray or gray-yellow, sparsely pubescent. Leaves directed forward on upper side of branchlets, spreading on lower side, linear, straight or slightly curved, rhombic in cross section, 6-15×1-1.5 mm, with 4-7 stomatal lines on the upper and 0-4 on the lower surface, apex acute or obtuse. Seed cones maturing shades of red, brown, or dark purple, ovoid-cylindric, 4-12×1.7-3.5 cm when open. Seed scales 15-26 × 10-17 mm, margin denticulate or undulate. Seeds gray-brown, subovoid, 7-14 mm including a pale brown wing with purplish spots. Pollination Apr-May, seed maturity Sep-Oct (Wu and Raven 1999). See García Esteban et al. (2004) for a detailed characterization of the wood anatomy.
Var. hirtella: Leaves slightly compressed with stomata on all surfaces. Seed cones yellowish brown at maturity. Seed scales obtrullate (kite-shaped) with denticulate margins (Farjon 2010).
Var. likiangensis: Young shoots sparsely pubescent or glabrous. Leaves 8-17 × 1-1.5 mm, transversely rhombic in cross-section. Seed cones ovoid-oblong with an oblique base, 7-12(-15) × 3-3.5 cm when open. Seed scales obovate or broadly obtrullate (kite-shaped) with upper margin rounded-obtuse, entire, sometimes denticulate and undulate (Farjon 2010).
Var. montigena: Leaves 6-15 mm long, rhombic (not compressed) in cross section (Farjon 2010).
Var. rubescens: Young shoots pubescent, orange or reddish brown. Leaves 1.5-2 mm wide. Seed cones often with an oblique base, cleft at one side, purplish brown at maturity, 4-8 × 3-4 cm when open. Seed scales thin, coriaceous, obtrullate (kite-shaped) with a wavy margin (Farjon 2010).
Bhutan; China: S Qinghai, S and W Sichuan, SE Xizang (Tibet), NW Yunnan, at 2500-4100 m elevation (Wu and Raven 1999). Commonly found in mixed conifer forest with, e.g., Abies spp., Picea spp., Larix potaninii, and at lower elevations Tsuga spp. (Farjon 2010). Hardy to Zone 8 (cold hardiness limit between -12.1°C and -6.7°C) (Bannister and Neuner 2001).
Var. montigena is "a useful timber tree restricted to a small area of high-altitude coniferous forest in south-west Sichuan. Levels of exploitation of both the tree and the forest in general have caused population declines. There are no signs of the pressure easing and no protection measures are enforced." Var. hirtella is "restricted to high-altitude coniferous forests in the mountains of west Sichuan and neighbouring Tibet. The tree provides a useful timber and levels of exploitation of both it and the forest in general have caused serious habitat fragmentation and population declines" (WCMC 1998).
The oldest known living specimen, 589 years, was documented in a tree-ring chronology covering the period 1406-1994 (crossdated after 1448), collected in SE Tibet by Achim Brauning (doi.org/10.25921/6wpw-0t84). This chronology was used in a dendroclimatic temperature reconstruction (PAGES 2k Consortium 2013).
This species is exploited for timber production, the wood used for poles, construction, furniture, and pulp. The bark yields tannin, resin is tapped or distilled from the wood, and the leaves produce essential oils. It is also fairly common in horticultural use in Europe and North America (Farjon 2010). Note that horticultural specimens are often misidentified as to variety, and sometimes as to species, particularly in the case of the recently-described P. linzhiensis, which was formerly treated as a variety of P. likiangensis.
Can easily be found in mountain valleys in the vicinity of Kangding, Sichuan, where are found the type locales for several varieties first collected by E. H. Wilson (Farjon 1990 and pers. obs. 1988-89).
The epithet refers to the mountains near Lijiang in Yunnan, where Delavay collected the type (Franchet 1899).
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.
Franchet, A. 1899. Plantarum sinensium ecloge tertia. Journal de Botanique 13:257. Available: Biodiversity Heritage Library, accessed 2020.11.26.
Hoch, Jean. 2019.02.18. Post in Facebook group "Planet Conifer." https://www.facebook.com/groups/planetconifer/permalink/2528188983877740/, accessed 2019.02.18.
Lockwood, Jared D., Jelena M. Aleksic, Jiabin Zou, Jing Wang, Jianquan Liu, and Susanne S. Renner. 2013. A new phylogeny for the genus Picea from plastid, mitochondrial, and nuclear sequences. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 69:717-727.
PAGES 2k Consortium. 2013. Continental-scale temperature variability during the past two millennia. Nature Geoscience 6:339-346. doi: 10.1038/NGEO1797
Pritzel, E. 1901. Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 29:217. Available: Biodiversity Heritage Library, accessed 2020.11.26.
Rushforth, K. 2007. Spruces (Picea: Pinaceae) in the Yarlung Tsangpo drainage of southeast Tibet (Xizang, China). International Dendrology Society Yearbook 70:42–53.
World Conservation Monitoring Centre - Trees [WCMC]. 1998. Database at http://www.wcmc.org.uk/cgi-bin/SaCGI.cgi/trees.exe, accessed 1998.10.01, now defunct.
The species account at Threatened Conifers of the World.
Zhuoxuan Lu, Yuhua Wang, Xiaolu Zhang, Helena Korpelainen, and Chunyang Li. 2009. Genetic variation of isolated Picea balfouriana populations from the southeast of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Annals of Forest Science 66:607-616.
Last Modified 2025-01-24
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