Abstract
The classification and distribution of the genus Picea is reviewed in this paper. A few of the 34 species recognized are widely distributed in the boreal zone of the Northern Hemisphere, while almost all of the others are relics and are distributed in restricted areas. Twenty species, more than the half of the whole genus, are endemic to the Sino-Japanese region. According to palaeobotanical data, the more primitive group, sect. Omorika and sect. Sitcha as defined by SCHMIDT, occurred through the early Tertiary. The advanced groups, sect. Picea and sect. Pungentes, differentiated in the late Tertiary. After the ice age of the Quaternary, some new members of sect. Picea extented their areas to the boreal zone. Following a taxonomic key to the species and varieties, all the taxa of the Japanese Picea including forms are annotated together with distribution areas. The cone scales of each species are shown by illustrations (Fig. 3).
