Brewer spruce, weeping spruce

Trees to 40m; trunk to 1.5m diam., typically buttressed; crown conic. Bark gray to brown. Branches drooping; twigs pendent, elongate, slender, gray-brown, finely pubescent. Buds gray-brown, 5--7mm, apex rounded. Leaves 1.5--3cm, flattened or broadly triangular in cross section (abaxial surface rounded or slightly angular), rather rigid, abaxial surface dark green with stomatal bands absent, adaxial surface glaucous with conspicuous stomatal bands separated by slight ridge or angle, apex blunt (especially on older leaves). Seed cones 6.5--12cm; scales fan-shaped, 15--20 ´ 15--20mm, rigid, margin at apex entire to slightly erose.

Montane to subalpine forests of the Siskiyou Mountains; 1000--2300m; Calif., Oreg.

SELECTED REFERENCES

Waring, R.H., W.H. Emmingham, and S.W. Running. 1975. Environmental limits of an endemic spruce, Picea breweriana. Canad. J. Bot. 53: 1599--1613.