Belfast Botanic Gardens Tree Archive

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This is one of a series of short articles about trees in the Belfast Botanic Gardens compiled by the Friends group. The tree tag number relates to the black tree maintenance tags, usually fixed on the tree trunk, 2 to 3m above ground level.
Family: Pinaceae
Picea breweriana S.Watson
Brewer's weeping spruce

Black tag 45
54o 34.976N
5o 56.164W

Belfast Botanic Gardens has a young specimen of this most elegant of spruces planted near the statue of Kelvin at the Stranmillis Road entrance. This is a rare species in the wild being confined to a small area in Western USA, but is now widely planted in gardens and tree collections. Discovered in 1897, it 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

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

Picea breweriana male cones

Picea breweriana male cone
Picea breweriana male cones in spring Picea breweriana male cone

Photos taken in Belfast Botanic Gardens in 2009. Copyright: Friends of Belfast Botanic Gardens.

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