Tigertail Spruce

The name Picea polita Carrière, based on Abies polita Siebold & Zuccarini, has been used for this species. However, A. polita is an illegitimate renaming of Pinus abies Linnaeus (Picea abies (Linnaeus) H. Karsten), and therefore cannot be used in any sense.

Trees to 40 m tall; trunk to 3 m d.b.h. in native range; bark pale gray, rough, flaking into tiny scales; branchlets pale yellow or pale brownish yellow, stout, glabrous; winter buds reddish or pale black-brown, glossy, ovoid or ovoid-oblong, 8-10 mm, scales closely appressed. Leaves spirally arranged or ascending on upper side of branchlets, curved on lower side, dull green, quadrangular-linear, stout, rhombic in cross section, 1.5-2 cm × 1.5-2 mm, obviously keeled, stomatal lines along each surface, apex acute. Seed cones pale yellow-green before maturity, reddish brown when mature, narrowly ovoid or cylindric-ellipsoid, 7.5-12.5 × ca. 3.5 cm. Seed scales suborbicular or obovate, margin slightly denticulate, apex rounded. Seeds 6-8 mm; wing to 1.4 cm.

Cultivated. Beijing Shi, Shandong (Qingdao Shi), Zhejiang (Hangzhou Shi) [native to Japan]

Abies torano Siebold ex K. Koch, Dendrologie 2(2): 233. 1873.

Picea polita, synonym Picea torano, commonly known as the tigertail spruce, is a species of conifer in the genus Picea. It is native to Japan.