Dragon Spruce

Growth habit

Tree

Perennation

Long-lived polycarpic perennial

Native distribution

Western China

Location

Urban Tree Collection, Conifer Slope

Source of plant

Treehaven Evergreen Nursery, Claude Heit, Forestfarm Nursery

Description

tall tree with broadly conical crown reaching 25 m high with gray-brown bark and horizontal branches that become more pendulous on older trees, the tips ascending. Young shoots thin, gray-yellow, glossy, pubescent, deeply furrowed (often also glabrous in cultivation), swollen leaf cushions buds oval-conical, 8 to 15 mm long(!), yellow-brown, resinous, the scales loosely appressed and somewhat recurved at theapex (very important characteristic!); needles radially bluish-green, 10 to 20 mm long, directed forward, 4-sided in cross-section, with 3 to 4 stomatal lines on either side; cones cylindrical, 8 to 10 cm long, light brown at first, eventually chestnut-brown, the scales obovate, stiff and woody, the seeds oblong, red-brown, somewhat shorter than the seed scales.

USDA Hardiness Zone

6

Special characteristics

winter interest