(Griff.) A.Henry
Description
Picea spinulosa, the Sikkim or Himalayan weeping spruce, is a coniferous tree endemic to the eastern Himalaya, native to Bhutan, India (Sikkim), Nepal and adjacent China (Xizang); GBIF lists 291 occurrences, many from cultivated arboretum specimens in Europe and North America. In the wild it forms montane coniferous and mixed forests, often on north-facing slopes and in sheltered valleys, generally between about 2300 and 3700 m. The trees illustrated were photographed at Jakar in Bhutan at 2550 m in October and at Lachung in Sikkim at 3400 m in May, spanning the typical altitudinal range.
It is a tall evergreen tree with a conical to columnar crown and pendulous, weeping branchlets that give the species its distinctive habit. The bark is grey and scaly; the needle leaves are flattened, sharply pointed (spinulose, as the epithet notes), borne singly on small peg-like pulvini and showing two whitish stomatal bands beneath. The seed cones are pendulous, cylindrical, green ripening to pale brown, with thin, rounded, entire scales. Pollen and seed cones mature in a single season, and the winged seeds are dispersed by wind from the opening cones.
Picea spinulosa belongs to Pinaceae and is a regional dominant of the eastern Himalayan temperate conifer forests, frequently associating with Tsuga, Abies and broadleaved genera. Its graceful weeping form has led to its planting in temperate arboreta worldwide, accounting for the wide scatter of cultivated records. The species yields useful softwood timber. Although restricted in natural range, it remains locally common; nonetheless its forests are vulnerable to logging, fire and the cumulative effects of land-use change across the eastern Himalaya.
Author: (Griff.) A.Henry · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Conifers of the World, Farjon A Handbook of the World's Conifers