Picea asperata

What to Eat

Edible parts: Flowers, Inner bark, Seeds, Tea

Young male catkins can be eaten raw or cooked and are used as a flavouring. Immature female cones are edible cooked; the central portion, when roasted, is sweet and syrupy. Inner bark can be dried, ground into a powder and used as a thickener in soups or added to cereals when making bread — an emergency food when all else fails. The seed is edible raw but is too small and fiddly to be worthwhile unless food is scarce. A refreshing tea rich in vitamin C can be made from the young shoot tips.

Where to Find It

They grow in the mountains and river basins between 2400-3600 m altitude in China. It suits hardiness zones 4-8.

Asia, Australia, China,

How to Identify

A tree. It grows 45 m tall. The trunk is 1 m across. The bark is greyish-brown. It is furrowed into irregular rough scaly patches. The young branches are brownish yellow. They turn brown to grey. The leaves are directed forward and curve upwards on the upper side of branches. They part and spread, on the lower side of branches. They are 1-2 cm long by 1-2 mm wide. There are 4-8 lines along each surface. The seed cones are green and mature pale brown. They are oblong and 5-16 cm long by 2.5-3.5 cm wide. The seeds are fattened and oval. They are 4 mm across.

How to Grow

Likes abundant moisture at the roots, if grown in drier areas it must be given a deep moist soil. Succeeds in wet cold and shallow soils but is not very wind-firm in shallow soils. This species prefers a dry cold high mountain site. Prefers a pH between 4 to 6. Dislikes shade. Tolerates poor peaty soils. Intolerant of atmospheric pollution. Resists wind exposure to some degree. This species has been planted experimentally in Europe as a timber tree. Growth of young trees is usually very slow due to damage by late spring frosts. However, once trees get above 2 metres (which can take 10 years or more) growth increases and can be fairly rapid with an average of 30cm a year common. In some upland areas, especially over granitic or other base-poor soils, growth rate and health have been seriously affected by aluminium poisoning induced by 'acid rain' pollution. Trees should be planted into their permanent positions when they are quite small, between 30 and 90cm. Larger trees will check badly and hardly put on any growth for several years. This also badly affects root development and wind resistance. Plants are strongly outbreeding, self-fertilized seed usually grows poorly. They hybridize freely with other members of this genus.

Propagation: Stratification will likely improve germination, so sow fresh seed in autumn in a cold frame if possible. Sow stored seed as early in the year as possible in a cold frame in a position of light shade; do not allow seed to dry out, and store it in a cool place. Prick out seedlings into individual pots when large enough to handle and grow on in a greenhouse or cold frame for their first winter; plant out in early summer of the following year or grow on in an outdoor nursery bed for a further year. Protection from spring frosts may be needed. Cuttings of semi-ripe terminal shoots, 5–8cm long, taken in August in a frame with frost protection, form roots in spring. Cuttings of mature terminal shoots, 5–10cm long, taken in September/October in a cold frame, take 12 months to root. Cuttings of soft to semi-ripe wood taken in early summer in a frame are slow but reliable.

Medicinal Uses

None known

Other Uses

Wood is soft and not strong; used in general construction and valued for paper pulp production. The timber is also used for aircraft, railway sleepers and furniture. The trunk yields resin, and the roots, branches and leaves are used for producing aromatic oils.

Picea asperata (dragon spruce; Chinese: 雲杉) is a species of spruce in the family Pinaceae. It is native to western China, from eastern Qinghai, southern Gansu and southwestern Shaanxi south to western Sichuan.

Notes

There are between 30 and 40 species of Picea.

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