Picea schrenkiana

Schrenk’s spruce is a member of the pine or Pinaceae family and is native to the Tian Shan Mountains of central Asia in western China (Xinjiang), Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. It grows at altitudes of 1,200–3,500 metres, usually in pure stands.

There are two subspecies: Picea schrenkiana subsp. schrenkiana (found in eastern Tian Shan, China, Kazakhstan and Xinjiang); and Picea schrenkiana subsp. tianshanica (from western Tian Shan, China and Kyrgyzstan).

• It is a medium-sized evergreen tree growing to 50 m tall, and with a trunk diameter of up to 1.5 m, and a narrow, conical crown with level and sometimes pendulous branchlets. The shoots are pale buff-brown, and glabrous (hairless).
• Leaves are needle-like, 1.5–3.5 cm long, rhombic in cross-section, pointed; needles are on short, stout pegs (sterigmata). Needles subtending a bud are distinctively angled out at a greater angle than the rest of the leaves (a characteristic of only a few other spruces).
• Cones are pendant, non-fragmenting, cylindric–conic, 6–12 cm long and 2 cm broad, purple when young, maturing dark brown and opening to 2.5–3.5 cm broad 5–7 months after pollination; the scales are moderately stiff and smoothly rounded.