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

The oldest record is 362 years, a crossdated estimate for a tree near the Bilu Giant Tree (a very large Cunninghamia konishii) in Hualien, Taiwan (supplemental data to Brienen et al. 2025).

Ethnobotany

No data as of 2026-07-30.

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

Brienen, R. J. W., G. M. Locosselli, S. Krottenthaler, et al. 2025. Contrasting pathways to tree longevity in gymnosperms and angiosperms. Nature Communications 17:898. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-67619-2.

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).