Fossil history ised winged seeds of
Picea ugoana.
Early Miocene,
Niigata Prefecture, Japan The
Picea lineage begins in the
fossil record around 130 million years ago (mya). The oldest record of spruce that has been found in the fossil record is from the Early Cretaceous (
Valanginian) of western Canada, around 136 million years old. The only surviving branch of the lineage, however, diverged only around 30 mya, meaning that the rest of the crown group has no living descendants. That, in turn, means that the biogeography and ecology of the crown group cannot be inferred from living members of the genus.Mast. (doubtfully distinct from
P. asperata) •
Picea austropanlanica Silba (doubtfully distinct from
P. purpurea) •
Picea brachytyla – Sargent's spruce, southwest China •
Picea breweriana – Brewer's spruce,
Klamath Mountains, North America; local
endemic •
Picea chihuahuana – Chihuahua spruce, northwest Mexico (rare, endangered) •
Picea crassifolia – Qinghai spruce, China •
Picea engelmannii – Engelmann spruce, western North American mountains; important in forestry •
Picea farreri – Burmese spruce, northeast Burma, southwest China (Yunnan) •
Picea glauca (syn.
P. laxa) – white spruce, northern North America; important in forestry •
Picea glehnii – Glehn's spruce, northern Japan,
Sakhalin •
Picea jezoensis – Jezo spruce, northeast Asia and
Kamchatka south to Japan •
Picea koraiensis – Korean spruce, Korea, northeast China •
Picea koyamae – Koyama's spruce, Japan (mountains) •
Picea likiangensis – Likiang spruce, southwest China •
Picea linzhiensis (W.C.Cheng & L.K.Fu) Rushforth (syn.
P. likiangensis var.
linzhiensis) – Linzhi spruce, southeast Tibet (
Yarlung Tsangpo valley) •
Picea mariana – black spruce, northern North America •
Picea martinezii – Martinez spruce, northeast Mexico (very rare, endangered) •
Picea maximowiczii – Maximowicz spruce, Japan (rare, mountains) •
Picea meyeri – Meyer's spruce, northern China (from Inner Mongolia to Gansu) •
Picea morrisonicola – Taiwan spruce, Taiwan (high mountains) •
Picea neoveitchii – Veitch's spruce, northwest China (rare, critically endangered) •
Picea obovata – Siberian spruce, north
Scandinavia,
Siberia; sometimes treated as a subspecies of
P. abies (and hybridises with it), but has distinct cones •
Picea omorika – Serbian spruce, Serbia and Bosnia; local
endemic; important in horticulture •
Picea orientalis – Caucasian spruce or Oriental spruce,
Caucasus, northeast Turkey •
Picea polita (syn.
P. torano) – tiger-tail spruce, Japan •
Picea pungens – blue spruce or Colorado spruce,
Rocky Mountains, North America; important in horticulture •
Picea purpurea – purple cone spruce, western China •
Picea retroflexa – green dragon spruce, China •
Picea rubens – red spruce, northeastern North America; important in forestry •
Picea schrenkiana – Schrenk's spruce, mountains of central Asia •
Picea sitchensis – Sitka spruce, Pacific coast of North America; the largest species, to 95 m tall; important in forestry •
Picea smithiana – morinda spruce, western
Himalaya, eastern Afghanistan, northern and northwest
India •
Picea spinulosa – Sikkim spruce, northeast India (
Sikkim) and Bhutan, eastern
Himalaya •
Picea wilsonii – Wilson's spruce, western China ; Natural hybrids These hybrids are known to occur naturally:
Genome The nuclear, mitochondrial and chloroplast genomes of British Columbia interior spruce
Picea × albertiana have been sequenced. The large (20 Gbp) nuclear genome and associated gene annotations of interior spruce (genotype PG29) were published in 2013 and 2015. == Ecology ==