"most, if not all plants growing under this name are P. asperata and not P. likiangensis var montigena. Can anyone verify this information"

Certainly applies to specimens in Britain; not sure about elsewhere.

Resin

Thank you Resin, I will buy it and see what I get....

osprey

This is a link with a photo of the nursery that has it available:

http://www.forestfarm.com/product.php?id=6926

Looks like Picea asperata there too

Resin

Thats a nice looking spruce!

thanks resin, I've been told that the plant has longer needles than asperata and likiangensis....

osprey

There
are many years now I seek for a
true montigena, those
in France
are also of asperata type. I also see those of
Hunnewell arbo, but not those of Arnold
arbo. I even visited China, exactly the place where E. H. Wilson and later W. C. Cheng had found it. I searched unsuccessfully for 7 days.
The cultivated trees are grown from seeds harvested in China
in October 1910. However,
at that date Wilson
was recovering in Chengdu following a leg
fracture contracted in September
1910. The seeds No.
4084 of whom all cultivated montigena are
from have therefore harvested
without the personal presence of Wilson. However, I wonder
why later Wilson never says that there was an error on the trees in
cultivation.

So are the Hunnewell arboretum trees "the real thing"?

Here a photo of the Hunnewell cones

here a very good montigena specimen

We just received a plant from the National Arboretum in USA labeled as montigena. Impossible to sort out at young age. It doesn't look like asperata or retroflexa, so we will accession as such and hope we are lucky.

Welcome! it's nice to have such an esteemed visitor.

Sorry to go off topic, but have you distributed your Torreya jackii to any nurseries for introduction? I've been looking for it for a long time.

Yes, Tom, I believe I see you on FB Advanced Collectors group.

Hello Tom, good news. Indeed, it is not easy to identify a variety of P. likiangensis before its sexual maturity. As it is, it should look like a P. balfouriana with quadrangular, short leaves (-16 mm), non-prickly apex, brown pubescent twig. Resinous buds. Bonne Chance !