Picea × albertiana
| Picea × albertiana | |
|---|---|
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| Tree at Fort St. John, BC, Canada | |
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| Cones of Picea × albertiana | |
Scientific classification 
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| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Gymnospermae |
| Division: | Pinophyta |
| Class: | Pinopsida |
| Order: | Pinales |
| Family: | Pinaceae |
| Genus: | Picea |
| Species: | P. × albertiana
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| Binomial name | |
| Picea × albertiana | |
Picea × albertiana (Alberta spruce, Interior spruce, or hybrid white spruce) is a nothospecies that is a natural cross between white spruce and Engelmann spruce.[1] It is a dominant forest species in interior British Columbia where the ranges of the two parent species overlap.
Description and distribution
[edit]The morphology exhibits characteristics of both parent species. The trees take irregular intermediate forms, which may vary in needle length, cone dimensions, cone scale texture, and twig pubescence.[2] The species can grow up to 48 m (157 ft) in height,[3] and live to be over 100 years old.[4] There is significant evidence that the species complex is locally adapted to cold temperatures, and is specifically adapted to autumn cold hardiness.[5]
The species is especially common in Canada, specifically in the Northwest Territories and Yukon, projecting east to Manitoba and down to southern British Columbia. It sporadically appears in the United States within the states of Washington, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, and western South Dakota. Hybrid populations self-perpetuate without the presence of either parent species.[6]
Ecology
[edit]Interior spruce are hosts to the spruce beetle, which are deadly to infected stands of trees. For example, during the infestation that lead to the Bowron clearcut, 60% of mature spruce trees were killed in 175,000 hectares of forest over a few years.[7]
Plant tissues of the species are colonized by bacteria of the genera Caballeronia and Paraburkholderia. This association has been studied for the potential nitrogen-fixing benefits to host trees.[8]
Classification
[edit]The complex was first published in 1907 by Stewardson Brown as Picea albertiana. It was soon recombined as Picea glauca var. albertiana by Charles Sprague Sargent in 1919,[2] a treatment used by almost all sources until early in the 21st century, when Strong & Hills (2006) concluded the taxon was of hybrid origin.[9]
P. engelmannii and P. glauca hybrids are now most often referred to as P. × albertiana in taxonomic literature, having now been accepted by the Plants of the World Online (POWO) database.[10] Björk & Goward (2022) attempted to reclassify the nothospecies as Picea × darwyniana, as they believed Brown was actually describing a misidentified hybrid with black spruce.[11] However, this was refuted by Strong (2023), who argued the rationale and name were invalid. Strong referred to P. glauca × P. engelmannii hybrids as P. albertiana subsp. albertiana, and P. engelmannii × P. glauca hybrids as P. a. subsp. ogilviei,[12] though this distinction between the parentage sex is not accepted by POWO.[10]
Synonyms
[edit]As of 2025, Plants of the World Online lists 11 synonyms of Picea × albertiana.[10]
- Picea alba var. albertiana (S.Br.) Beissn.
- Picea × albertiana var. densata (L.H.Bailey) W.L.Strong & Hills
- Picea × albertiana subsp. ogilviei W.L.Strong & Hills
- Picea × albertiana var. porsildii (Raup) W.L.Strong & Hills
- Picea × darwyniana Björk & Goward
- Picea glauca subsp. albertiana (S.Br.) P.A.Schmidt
- Picea glauca var. albertiana (S.Br.) Sarg.
- Picea glauca var. densata L.H.Bailey
- Picea glauca subsp. ogilviei (W.L.Strong & Hills) Silba
- Picea glauca var. polsildii Raup
- Picea glauca subsp. polsildii (Raup) Silba
See also
[edit]- Picea × lutzii, (Lutz's spruce), a natural hybrid between white spruce and Sitka spruce
References
[edit]- ^ "Picea × albertiana". BC Conservation Data Centre: Species Summary. B.C. Minist. of Environment. Retrieved 15 May 2025.
- ^ a b Taylor, T. M. C. (1959). "The Taxonomic Relationship Between Picea glauca (Moench) Voss and P. engelmannii Parry". Madroño. 15 (4): 111–115. ISSN 0024-9637. JSTOR 41422994. Retrieved 15 May 2025.
- ^ Dallimore, W.; Jackson, A. B. (1966). A Handbook of Coniferae and Ginkgoaceae (4th ed., revised ed.). Arnold. p. 352.
- ^ "Hybrid White Spruce". Sierra Club BC. 12 December 2016. Retrieved 15 May 2025.
- ^ Degner, Jonathan (2020). "Local Adaptation in the Interior Spruce Hybrid Complex". The Spruce Genome. Compendium of Plant Genomes. Springer International Publishing. pp. 155–176. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-21001-4_10. ISBN 978-3-030-21000-7. Retrieved 15 May 2025.
- ^ Hitchcock, C. Leo; Cronquist, Arthur; Janish, Jeanne R.; Rumely, John H.; Shin, Crystal; Porcino, Natsuko (2018). Flora of the Pacific Northwest: An Illustrated Manual (2 ed.). University of Washington Press. p. 68. ISBN 978-0-295-74288-5. JSTOR j.ctvfrxqxp. Retrieved 15 May 2025.
- ^ Costello, Allan; Philippe, Henry. "Saga of the Spruce Beetle Outbreak in the Bowron". University of Northern British Columbia. Archived from the original on 23 August 2023. Retrieved 30 July 2024.
- ^ Puri A, Padda KP, Chanway CP (2020-01-01). "Can naturally-occurring endophytic nitrogen-fixing bacteria of hybrid white spruce sustain boreal forest tree growth on extremely nutrient-poor soils?". Soil Biology and Biochemistry. 140: 107642. Bibcode:2020SBiBi.14007642P. doi:10.1016/j.soilbio.2019.107642. ISSN 0038-0717.
- ^ Strong, W.L; Hills, L.V. (2006). "Taxonomy and origin of present-day morphometric variation in Picea glauca (× engelmannii) seed-cone scales in North America". Canadian Journal of Botany. 84 (7): 1129–1141. Bibcode:2006Botan..84.1129S. doi:10.1139/b06-071. ISSN 0008-4026. Retrieved 2025-05-15.
- ^ a b c "Picea × albertiana S.Br". Plants of the World Online. Retrieved 15 May 2025.
- ^ Björk, Curtis R.; Goward, Trevor (30 December 2022). "Clarification of the identity of Picea × albertiana and a new nothospecies for hybrids of P. engelmannii and P. glauca" (PDF). Phytoneuron (2022–65): 1–8. ISSN 2153-733X. Retrieved 15 May 2025.
- ^ Strong, W.L (1 December 2023). "Picea × darwyniana Björk & Goward: an invalid taxonomic name". Botany. 101 (12): 582–585. Bibcode:2023Botan.101..582S. doi:10.1139/cjb-2023-0062.