Picea breweriana in Belfast Botanic Gardens

Friends of Belfast Botanic Gardens

Tree of the month series - this series of short articles about trees in the Belfast Botanic Gardens is compiled by members of the Friends group and Gardens staff. We aim to build up to a comprehensive archive of trees in Belfast Botanic Gardens. Each article illustrates a tree growing in Belfast Botanic Gardens together with information from a range of sources. Where possible we will give the tree tag number - these are the small aluminium discs, usually fixed on the tree trunk, 2 to 3m above ground level.

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Tag 51

location:

54deg 34.976 N

5deg 56.164 W

Tree of the Month, October 2009

Brewer's Weeping Spruce

Picea breweriana

Jonathan Pilcher

Belfast Botanic Gardens has a young specimen of this most elegant of spruces planted near the statue of Kelvin at the Malone Road gate. This is a rare species in the wild being confined to a small area in Western USA, but is now widely planted. It was discovered in 1897, received an Award of Merit from the RHS in 1958 and an Award of Garden Merit in 1984. The Belfast tree is now producing abundant male cones in spring but is probably still too young to produce the characteristic elongated female (seed) cones.


Picea breweriana in Belfast Botanic Gardens, autumn	Picea breweriana in Belfast Botanic Gardens, spring

Picea breweriana male cones in spring	Picea breweriana male cone