Picea martinezii

T.F. Patterson 1988

Common names

Nuevo León spruce.

Taxonomic notes

Considered synonymous with P. chihuahuana Martínez by some authors (Farjon 1990), but proved clearly distinct on detailed analysis, "justifying the retention of P. martinezii as a separate species" (Taylor et al. 1994).

Description

A tree to at least 35 m, possibly 40 m tall. Primary branches level, side branches and twigs moderately pendulous on mature trees. Shoots stout, pale brown to orange-brown. Leaves bright green, glossy with inconspicuous stomata (very unlike the matte blue-green of P. chihuahuana), 23-28 mm (vs. 17-23 mm in P. chihuahuana), uniquely in Picea flattened not dorsiventrally but from side to side, exceedingly sharp (readily drawing blood when shoots grasped!) but with a shorter spine tip than P. chihuahuana. Cones green ripening orange-brown, cylindrical, (8.5-)11-16 cm long (vs. 7-12 cm in P. chihuahuana), 5.5-6 cm broad when open with large scales (vs. 4-5 cm in P. chihuahuana; no overlap), scales widely spaced, 12-16 scales crossed in 10 cm length of an open cone (vs. congested, 25-30 per 10 cm in P. chihuahuana; no overlap), 26-32 mm long (vs. 18-23 mm in P. chihuahuana; no overlap), 21-25 mm wide (vs. 14-20 mm in P. chihuahuana; no overlap), apex smoothly rounded (truncated, almost square-ended, in P. chihuahuana). Seed 4-5 mm, black, with a 15 mm wing. (Data from (Patterson 1988, Taylor et al. 1994), M. P. Frankis' Nuevo León field notes and cones in M. P. Frankis collection).

Range

Mexico: Nuevo León, in the Sierra Madre Oriental in two small populations, at El Butano, 6 km SE of La Trinidad (25°11' N, 100°07' W), and in Cañada La Tinaja on Rancho La Encantada near Zaragoza (23°54' N, 99°47' W), at 2150-2600 m elevation (Müller-Using and Lässig 1986, Patterson 1988). USDA hardiness zone 8.

This species is listed as endangered in Mexico under NOM-ECOL-059-94.

Discovered 1981 (Müller-Using and Lässig 1986). It is known from only two sites, one containing a few hundred trees, the other only about a dozen, growing in canyons on moist north-facing scree slopes. Regeneration is poor but currently thought to be adequate, but a decline in the population could easily occur. "Timber has been extracted in recent years in the larger of the two populations. The other population has fewer than 15 individuals. Fire is the main threat" (World Conservation Monitoring Center 1998).

Big tree

Oldest

Dendrochronology

Ethnobotany

Observations

Remarks

Citations

Müller-Using, B. and R. Lässig. 1986. Zur Verbreitung der Chihuahua-Fichte. Mitt. Dtsch. Dendrol. Ges. 76: 157-169.

Patterson, T.F. 1988. A new species of Picea (Pinaceae) from Nuevo León, México. Sida 13: 131-135.

World Conservation Monitoring Center. 1998. Picea martinezii. http://www.wcmc.org.uk/cgi-bin/SaCGI.cgi/trees.exe, accessed 1998.12.21, defunct.

This page co-edited with Michael P. Frankis, 1998.12.

See also