Picea × mariorika
Sponsor
Kindly sponsored by
Sir Henry Angest
Credits
Tom Christian (2025)
Recommended citation
Christian, T. (2025), 'Picea × mariorika' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Common Names
- Mariorika Spruce
Infraspecifics
Other taxa in genus
- Picea abies
- Picea × albertiana
- Picea alcoquiana
- Picea asperata
- Picea asperata aggregate
- Picea brachytyla
- Picea breweriana
- Picea chihuahuana
- Picea crassifolia
- Picea engelmannii
- Picea farreri
- Picea × fennica
- Picea glauca
- Picea glehnii
- Picea jezoensis
- Picea koraiensis
- Picea koyamae
- Picea likiangensis
- Picea likiangensis aggregate
- Picea linzhiensis
- Picea × lutzii
- Picea mariana
- Picea martinezii
- Picea maximowiczii
- Picea mexicana
- Picea meyeri
- Picea morrisonicola
- Picea neoveitchii
- Picea obovata
- Picea omorika
- Picea orientalis
- Picea polita
- Picea pungens
- Picea purpurea
- Picea rubens
- Picea × saaghii
- Picea schrenkiana
- Picea sitchensis
- Picea smithiana
- Picea spinulosa
- Picea wilsonii
A hybrid raised in cultivation, intermediate between the parents, differing from P. omorika in the broader pyramidal shape, narrower leaves with acute apices and one or two lines of stomata above, and smaller seed cones (3.5–4.5 cm) (Den Ouden & Boom 1965).
USDA Hardiness Zone 3-4
RHS Hardiness Rating H7
Plants of this parentage are reported to have first been raised by the German nurseryman G.D. Böhlje of Westerstede. The nothospecies was described by Boom in 1959 (Den Ouden & Boom 1965). Den Ouden & Boom suggest plants are broader than Picea omorika with slightly bluish foliage, and that because this aesthetic was considered an improvement on P. omorika in Germany, most selections were only ever marketed under P. omorika (e.g. ‘Tremonia’).
Böhlje apparently raised seed from both parents, and thus the seedlings are likely to have been quite variable. Several cultivar names previously listed here are dubious: ‘Gnom’ had already been used under P. glauca, and ‘Machala’ is now thought to represent P. × lutzii (Grimshaw & Bayton 2009).
This hybrid seems to be most frequently represented by the dwarf cultivars listed below; it is not clear if normally-sized trees are commonly grown.
'Kobold'
A globose plant of very dense, slow growth. Selected in 1951 by zu Jeddeloh, Germany, though whether or not from Böhlje’s original seedlings is unrecorded (Auders & Spicer 2012).
'Tremonia'
A globose dwarf of very slow growth, often listed under Picea omorika, originating from Rombergpark, Dortmund, or else under P. × mariorika originating from Westfalen Park, Dortmund (Tremonia is the Roman name for Dortmund). In reality these parks are less than 1 km apart and the history of these ‘two’ clones seems certain to have been conflated (Auders & Spicer 2012).