Picea polita (Sieb. & Zucc.) Carr.

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Picea polita' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/picea/picea-polita/). Accessed 2024-03-29.

Genus

Common Names

  • Tiger-tail Spruce

Synonyms

  • Abies polita Sieb. & Zucc.
  • Abies torano Sieb.
  • Picea torano (Sieb.) Koehne

A tree over 100 ft high in Japan; in cultivation a small pyramidal tree of very stiff habit; branches rigid and densely clothed with leaves; young shoots not downy, pale and yellowish the first year; terminal buds conical, shining brown, with closely appressed scales. Leaves set all round the shoot except for an open V-shaped groove beneath; they are 134 in. long, 112 in. wide; diamond-shaped in cross-section, very rigid, somewhat curved, spine-tipped; dark glossy green, with four to seven faint lines of stomata on all four surfaces. Cones 212 to 4 in. long, 114 to 134 in. wide before opening; brown when mature; scales minutely toothed.

Native of Japan; introduced by J. G. Veitch in 1861. This spruce is decidedly one of the most distinct and striking in the genus, especially in the comparatively long, thick, rigid, spine-tipped leaves standing out at almost right angles to the shoot. It is also one of the handsomest, and in a young state forms a shapely tree suitable for an isolated position on a lawn. It is a very hardy spruce, but not quick-growing. The pegs, or persisting bases of the leaves, left on the shoot are unusually large and prominent.

One of the oldest and largest specimens of P. polita grows at Stourhead, Wilts. Planted 1871, it measures 83 × 712 ft (1970). The largest in the Home Counties is a tree at Petworth House, Sussex, measuring 80 × 714 ft (1971).

From the Supplement (Vol. V)

specimens: Petworth House, Sussex, 85 × 714 ft (1983); Stourhead, Wilts., pl. 1871, 90 × 8 ft (1984); Keir House, Perths., 56 × 334 ft (1985); Strone House, Argyll, 75 × 612 ft (1985); Kilmacurragh, Co. Wicklow, Eire, 64 × 612 ft (1980).