Picea torano
Tigertail Spruce ( Picea torano )
The Tiger Tail Spruce ( Picea torano ) is a plant of the genus spruce (Picea ) in the pine family ( Pinaceae ). It is native to Japan.
Description
The Tiger Tail Spruce is an evergreen tree that can reach a height of up to 40 meters; the diameter at breast height ( dbh ) can be up to 1.5 meters. The bark is smooth when young; later it becomes rough, cracked, flaking in dandruff with gray- brown color. The habitus is monopodial and upright - columnar. First-order branches grow horizontal to slightly ascending; Second-order branches are short and dense. The branches are dense and appear at first yellowish- brown, becoming gray with age. The " leaf-cushions " ( pulvini ) are highly developed, and two to three millimeters long.
When Tigertail Spruce only slightly resinous buds are oblong - ovate and acute or obtuse; they can be up to 12 mm long and 8 mm wide. The bud scales are ovate - obtuse, smooth and shining dark - brown; they remain as scale-like, dark wreath made at the base of long shoots. This feature is species-specific and can therefore be used to determine.
The needle-like leaves are spirally on branch. They have a glossy dark green color, are very stiff and can be up to 2 inches long and 2 mm wide. The needles are probably alongside those of Picea chihuahuana the sharpest and most acute among all spruce species.
Male cones are red at first and at maturity in May / June yellowish and then about 3 inches tall. The female, oval egg-shaped cones are initially upright. At maturity in October they can be up to 11 inches long and seven inches wide (when open shed). Their color is then reddish-brown. You light brown dismissed, about 6 millimeters long and 3 millimeters wide, 15 millimeters long winged seeds.
Distribution and ecology
The Tiger Tail Spruce is native to Japan on the islands of Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu at altitude 600-1700 meters; the distribution area is sparsely populated.
Almost without exception, the Tiger Tail Spruce growing on podzolic soils of volcanic rock. It has a relatively cool and humid maritime climate with an average annual rainfall of 1000 mm. Especially at higher altitudes, the winters are cold and snowy. Some small residual areas of pure stands still exist, otherwise forms the Tigertail Spruce, among others, Abies homolepis, Japanese larch (Larix kaempferi ) and Japanese red pine ( Pinus densiflora ) and birch (Betula ), beech (Fagus ) and maples (Acer ) mixed stands.
System
The basionym Abies polita was published by the German botanist Philipp Franz von Siebold and Joseph Gerhard Zuccarini 1842 in their common task Flora japonica.
Here is a list of synonyms:
- Abies Siebold et Zucc polita. nom. illeg.
- Abies torano Siebold ex K.Koch
- Picea polita ( Siebold et Zucc. ) Carrière
- Pinus polita ( Siebold et Zucc. ) Antoine
- Pinus torano ( Siebold ex K.Koch ) Voss
For a long time Picea polita ( Siebold et Zucc. ) Carrière, the valid botanical name for the tiger -tail spruce. However, since the underlying basionym Abies polita already, as an illegitimate renaming of Pinus abies L. and Picea abies (L.) H. Karsten was in use, the epithet must not be used polita here. Instead, recourse was had to the description under the name Abies torano von Siebold, who in turn was referring to in his work Dendrology to the description of Karl Heinrich Koch. On Siebold's description, in turn, referred the German botanist Bernhard Adalbert Emil Koehne in his 1893 published work German Dendrology and placed the species in the genus of spruce (Picea ). Thus, the current valid botanical name Picea torano results ( Siebold ex K.Koch ) Koehne.