Common Names

Hari-momi, bara-momi [Japanese] (Iwatsuki et al. 1995).

Taxonomic notes

Syn: Abies torano Siebold ex K.Koch 1873, Pinus torano (Siebold ex K.Koch) Voss 1907, Abies polita Siebold et Zucc. 1842 nom. illeg., Pinus polita (Siebold et Zucc.) Antoine 1846, Picea polita (Siebold et Zucc.) Carrière 1855 (Farjon 1998). The name Picea polita is more common than Picea torano, being the norm in most published floras and most horticultural texts.

Description

Monoecious, evergreen tree to 30 m tall and 100 cm dbh. Bark grey-brown, deeply fissured and peeling off in scales. Branchlets stout, brown, glabrous, deeply grooved; pulvini stout, 0.6-0.7 mm long. Leaves stiff, hard, linear, quadrangular, ridged, 15-20 mm long, ca. 2.5 mm across, sharp-pointed, deep green, with a stomatal band on each side; resin canals two, marginal. Flowers May to June, 1-3 near apex of previous year's short shoots. Pollen cones cylindric, red-purple, with numerous microsporophylls. Seed cones pendant, ovate-oblong, green maturing (in October) brown, 7-10 cm long, 4-4.5 cm across. Cone scales persistent, widely obovate, thinly woody, 17-23 mm long, 14-18 mm wide, irregularly denticulate on upper margin; bract scales very small, inconspicuous. Seeds black-brown, obovate, ca. 6 mm long, 3 mm wide; wings brown, obovate ca. 13 mm long, 7 mm wide (Iwatsuki et al. 1995).

Range

Japan: Pacific Ocean side of C Honshu (westward from Fukushima Prefecture), Shikoku and Kyushu, at elevations of (400-)600-1700 m (Iwatsuki et al. 1995).

Big Tree

Oldest

Dendrochronology

Ethnobotany

Observations

Remarks

See Also

Farjon 1990.