Picea Breweriana is a species of extremely weeping trees and a native of South Western Oregon and Northwest California. It is found at altitudes of 1-2 thousand metres.
The immature cones of this tree are dark purple, fading to red and orange on maturation. A comparatively rare tree that is found growing in harsh and exposed ridgetop and is well separated from much of the faster growing trees such as the Douglas Fir. Because of its popularity as a garden specimen tree, many more are grown in gardens than in the wild.
Once again the evolutionary adaption of the weeping habit is directly the consequence of the snow fall found in the mountains of its native home lands.
The author of its botanical name was Sereno Watson, An American botanist, who chose to name the tree after an American geologist and botanist named William Henry Brewer who was born in New York State in 1848. He attended Yale University and studied in Europe at the University of Heidelberg, Germany.
In 1860 he was instrumental in a study of the geology of Northern California around the Gold Rush years and was also involved in a survey of Greenland in 1869. He then joined a famous expedition to Alaska in 1899.
He died at home in Connecticut in 1910.
In his honour, Mount Brewer in the Sierra Nevada’s is named after him.
from the series 18th Century Plant Collectors by Robert Kean
Scot Plants Direct at Hedgehogs Nursery, Crompton Road, Southfield Industrial Estate, Glenrothes, Fife KY6 2SF