Picea meyeri Rehder & E.H. Wilson

Tree 30 m tall, <0.6 m dbh. Crown broad conical or columnar in forest stands. Bark scaly, detaching from a young age in papery flakes, orange-brown in young trees, soon turning grey. First order branches long, slender, spreading horizontally; second order branches slender, numerous, spreading, thicker and somewhat assurgent in upper crown. Branchlets short, stiff, pale yellowish-brown but rather variable, prominently ridged and deeply grooved, glabrous or pubescent at first but glabrous by third year; pulvini 1.5–2 mm long, perpendicular to shoot or slightly recurved, darker than shoot. Vegetative buds ovoid-conical or broad conical, acute, 6–10 × 4–8 mm, resinous; bud scales triangular-acute, keeled, appressed or the upper scales with tips free and slightly recurved, pale brown. Leaves spreading radially, assurgent and forward above, parted beneath shoot, (8–)13–25(–30) × 2 mm, linear, straight on young trees, otherwise curved, apex acute but not pungent, quadrangular-rhomboid in cross-section with 2–5 lines of stomata on upper surfaces and 4–5(–8) lines on lower surfaces; leaves glaucous-green. Pollen cones 2–2.5 cm. Seed cones oval-oblong to cylindrical, usually symmetrical, apex obtuse, short-pedunculate to sessile, (6–)7–10(–12) × 2.5–3.5(–4) cm with opened scales, green at first, ripening through purplish-green to light reddish-brown or grey-brown. Seed scales obovate to suborbicular, 1.5–2 × 1–1.6 cm at midcone, surface finely striated, slightly convex, glabrous, upper margin entire, rounded, convex, base cuneate. Bracts ligulate-spathulate, 3–4 × 1.5–2.5 mm, entirely included. Seeds ovoid-oblong, base pointed, 3–4 × 1.5–2.5 mm, dark brown or blackish-brown; seed wings ovate-oblong, 10–15 × 5–6.5 mm, yellowish-brown. (Farjon 2017; Fu, Li & Mill 1999).

Distribution  China Hebei, Nei Mongol, Shaanxi, Shanxi

Habitat Montane or subalpine forests, often on north-facing slopes, between 1600 and 2700 m asl. In drier parts of its range the list of associates can be rather short, but elsewhere it can be a component of diverse forests, for example on Xiaowutai Shan, Hebei, it occurs with Abies nephrolepis, Larix gmelinii var. principis-rupprechtii and Picea wilsonii, and broadleaves including Acer truncatum, Betula mandshurica, Salix phylicifolia and Ulmus laciniata.

USDA Hardiness Zone 6

RHS Hardiness Rating H7

Conservation status Least concern (LC)

Taxonomic note Picea meyeri var. mongolica H.Q.Wu was described in 1986, differing in its paler, densely hairy one year shoots and slightly larger seed cones, purplish when young rather than green (Zu, Li & Zheng 1994). In 1994 Xu et al. elevated it to species rank: P. mongolica (H.Q.Wu) W.D.Xu. It is not recognised in the Flora of China (Fu, Li & Mill 1999) nor has it ever been recognised in any major work on conifers. However, it represents the northernmost distribution of P. meyeri and is an ecologically significant tree where it occurs, valued for its timber and well adapted to fixing sand (hence the local name Sand Spruce) and potentially useful in afforestation in arid regions and in urban forestry (Yan et al. 2021). In a recent investigation into the P. asperata complex, Liu et al. (2024) found it very closely related to P. meyeri, with the two forming a single genetic cluster well differentiated from other species. This supports the view that it does not merit species rank, but its geographic isolation and morphological differences – providing they are constant in relevant populations – could justify recognising it as a variety.