Common Names

Hime-baramomi [Japanese] (Iwatsuki et al. 1995).

Taxonomic notes

Syn.: Picea maximowiczii var. senanensis Hayashi 1960 (Iwatsuki et al. 1995).

Description

Monoecious, evergreen tree to 30 m tall, 100 cm dbh. Bark grey-brown, fissured, peeling off in thick scales. Branchlets pale grayish brown, grooved, glabrous; pulvini short, 0.2-0.3 mm long. Leaves leathery, linear, quadrangular, 10-20 mm long, ca. 1 mm across, apex acute, deep green, with a stomatal groove on each surface; resin canals two, marginal. Flowers May to June, terminal, solitary or 2 or 3 crowded on previous year's shoots. Pollen cones cylindric, pale brown, with many stamens. Seed cones pendulous, brown when ripe (October), oblong or cylindric-oblong, 4-7 cm long, 1.5-2 cm across. Cone seed scales thinly woody, orbicular-obovate, cuneate to base, entire, 7-13 mm long and wide; bract scales very small, oblong, acute, ca. 3 mm long. Seeds grey-brown, obovate, ca. 4 mm long, 2 mm wide; wings obovate, pale brown, 6-8 mm long, 3-4 mm wide (Iwatsuki et al. 1995).

Range

Japan: C Honshu (Chichibu Mountain Range, Yatsugatake Mts. and Mt. Senjogatake), at 1100-2000 m elevation (Iwatsuki et al. 1995). Also reported montane woodland on Fuji-San (World Conservation Monitoring Centre - Trees).

Big Tree

Oldest

Dendrochronology

Ethnobotany

Observations

Remarks

Both varieties are listed by the WCMC as vulnerable: "confined to small and scattered populations in degraded montane woodland ... Both the habitat and the tree have been overexploited. Much of the habitat remains degraded and regeneration is poor" (World Conservation Monitoring Centre - Trees).

See Also

Farjon 1990.