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Picea smithiana; photograph (c) Xthnob, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Xthnob, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2025-06-28

Picea smithiana (Wall.) Boiss.

Morinda spruce; West Himalayan Spruce; Indian Spruce; Himalayan spruce

Pinaceae · Afghanistan, Tibet +3 · listed by its genus as a temperate garden plant

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Picea smithiana, photograph (c) Xthnob, some rights reserved (CC BY)Picea smithiana, photograph (c) Xthnob, some rights reserved (CC BY)Picea smithiana, photograph (c) Xthnob, some rights reserved (CC BY)Picea smithiana, photograph (c) Xthnob, some rights reserved (CC BY)Picea smithiana, photograph (c) Sagnik Dutta Roy, some rights reserved (CC BY)Picea smithiana, photograph (c) Sagnik Dutta Roy, some rights reserved (CC BY) 30 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Coldest month, mean nightly low
-12.5°C
Jan at the habitat, not a floor; extremes not used (the weather cell's ground is too far off) CHELSA
Warmest month, mean daily high
19°C
Jul at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,848mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
21–47DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes March and May to September, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Picea smithiana is a species of evergreen tree in the family Pinaceae family. It is referred to by the common names Indian spruce, morinda spruce and West Himalayan spruce, and is a spruce native to the western Himalaya and adjacent mountains, from northeast Afghanistan, northern Pakistan, India to central Nepal. It grows at altitudes of 2,400–3,600 m (7,900–11,800 ft) in forests together with deodar cedar, blue pine and pindrow fir.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Picea smithiana", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Grouped as a temperate garden plant, listed under the genus Picea in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “tree”, “temperate”.

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,073 mm of 1,519 mm) falls in March and May to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 9.9 °C against a yearly mean of 4.0 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to March and September.

Rain

1,519 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,073 mm of it March and May to September. Wettest month July at 312 mm, driest month November at 31 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 497 mm to 2,521 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,848 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,519 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 21 to 47 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 16, the highest 90th-percentile month 51).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -12.5 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -21.6 °C to -3.0 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 18.5 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is -12.5 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, January, in the median year (CHELSA); a month's mean of its nightly lows is warmer than the nights a floor is read from. The daily extremes were read at a weather cell whose ground is too far above or below the typical spot to correct for, and are not used.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 52 to 68% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. No cold floor is read without a daily extremes series; the coldest month's mean nightly low named in its sentence is not one. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Group. Listed under the genus Picea in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “tree”, “temperate”. A group is taken only where Kew's description of the species agrees with the table's listing. The table gives no figure and no prose; the cold floor is the habitat's alone.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Picea smithiana through the yearWarmest month July, mean daily high 19 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low -12.5 °C; 1,519 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°frost°C · day and nightcold quarter0200400600800mm rainDLI 21–47RH 52–68%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 53 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C-3 / -15–10-2 / -12–112 / -7–156 / -2–2011 / 3–2316 / 9–2419 / 14–2318 / 13–2216 / 10–219 / -1–184 / -9–150 / -13–12
Night °C-13 / -22–-3-11 / -20–-2-7 / -16–2-3 / -12–60 / -8–105 / -3–149 / 5–159 / 5–155 / -1–12-2 / -13–7-7 / -18–2-10 / -20–-1
Rain mm93 / 21–172108 / 33–212131 / 37–265105 / 57–188116 / 57–161121 / 44–237312 / 47–662238 / 50–576155 / 37–31759 / 22–10131 / 14–5750 / 20–100
DLI23 / 17–2729 / 23–3337 / 32–4144 / 40–4847 / 44–5146 / 37–5037 / 27–4634 / 26–4133 / 29–3830 / 27–3625 / 20–3121 / 16–27
RH %53 / 49–5955 / 51–6056 / 50–6156 / 47–6056 / 48–6258 / 55–6767 / 56–7268 / 58–7263 / 57–6855 / 52–6152 / 47–5652 / 46–58

The daily extremes were not used: the correction for elevation, -1102 m, is beyond the 1,000 m either way that a lapse rate is applied over, so the weather cell's ground is other terrain than the typical spot's. So no cold floor is read for this species, and the coldest month's mean nightly low is not taken as one. What that cell gave, so corrected, over 44 years: absolute minimum -22.1 °C, 1st-percentile night -16.1 °C.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 53 grid cells holding the 72 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1089:5051 (35.525, 72.575). Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 53 distinct grid cells holding 72 of the 72 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1089:5051 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 35.50_72.500, lapse-corrected -1102 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 2522 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeAfghanistan, Tibet, Nepal, Pakistan, West Himalaya · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker35.89, 74.88 · in the densest population, 65 records (52% of those in range)
Kew's description“tree” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 125 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 72 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 40 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 391 km away. 73 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 53 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 125 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Picea smithiana, photograph 1did not loadPicea smithiana, photograph 2did not loadPicea smithiana, photograph 3did not loadPicea smithiana, photograph 4did not loadPicea smithiana, photograph 5did not loadPicea smithiana, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Xthnob, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); (c) Sagnik Dutta Roy, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Nepeta laevigata Lamiaceae Salvia hians Salvia hians Himalayan blue sage Photo: CC BY-SA, Sohail WagayCirsium falconeri Cirsium falconeri Falconer's Thistle Photo: CC BY-SA, Dinesh Valke from Thane, IndiaIris hookeriana Iris hookeriana Iridaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Imranashraf2882008 Delphinium vestitum Ranunculaceae Acer caesium Acer caesium Indian Maple Photo: CC BY, Sagnik Dutta Roy

Other Picea 35 in the reference

Picea abies Picea abies Norway spruce Photo: CC BY, Марина Давлетшина Picea × albertiana Pinaceae Picea alcoquiana Picea alcoquiana Alcock's Spruce Photo: CC BY-SA, Inti-solPicea asperata Picea asperata Dragon spruce Photo: CC BY, rduta on FlickrPicea brachytyla Picea brachytyla Sargent's Spruce Photo: CC0, author not statedPicea breweriana Picea breweriana Brewer spruce Photo: CC BY, Sam EberhardPicea chihuahuana Picea chihuahuana Chihuahua spruce Photo: CC BY, Rodolfo Maximiliano Gutiérrez-SánchezPicea crassifolia Picea crassifolia Qinghai spruce Photo: CC0, no rights reservedPicea engelmannii Picea engelmannii Engelmann spruce Photo: CC BY, Daughter DadPicea × fennica Picea × fennica Pinaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedPicea glehnii Picea glehnii Sakhalin spruce Photo: CC BY, Andrew BazdyrevPicea jezoensis Picea jezoensis Yezo spruce Photo: CC BY, Violetta Dzizyurova all 36 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Abies khutrow; Abies morinda; Abies smithiana; Picea khutrow; Picea morinda and 7 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Pinaceae
Described by
(Wall.) Boiss.
Native to
Afghanistan, Tibet, Nepal +2
Wild records
125 in range · 40 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 27 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (25 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 2 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 35.50_72.500, lapse-corrected -1102 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: the correction for elevation, -1102 m, is beyond the 1,000 m either way that a lapse rate is applied over, so the weather cell's ground is other terrain than the typical spot's, so no cold floor is shown
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22none of the photographs on this page is credited to GBIF: those shown are other sources', and GBIF's were the same photographs or were set aside by the photograph rules
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 48 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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