3. PICEA Dietr. Spruce.
Pyramidal trees, with tall tapering trunks often stoutly buttressed at the base, thin scaly bark, soft pale wood containing numerous resin-canals, slender whorled twice or thrice ramified branches, their ultimate divisions stout, glabrous or pubescent, and leaf-buds usually in 3’s, the 2 lateral in the axils of upper leaves. Leaves linear, spirally disposed, extending out from the branch on all sides or occasionally appearing 2-ranked by the twisting of those on its lower side, mostly pointing to the end of the branch, entire, articulate on prominent persistent rhomboid ultimately woody bases, keeled above and below, 4-sided and stomatiferous on the 4 sides, or flattened and stomatiferous on the upper and occasionally on the lower side, persistent from seven to ten years, deciduous in drying. Flowers terminal or in the axils of upper leaves, the male usually long-stalked, composed of numerous spirally arranged anthers with connectives produced into broad nearly circular toothed crests, the female oblong, oval or cylindric, with rounded or pointed scales, each in the axis of an accrescent bract shorter than the scale at maturity. Fruit an ovoid or oblong, cylindric pendant cone, crowded on the upper branches or in some species scattered over the upper half of the tree. Seeds ovoid or oblong, usually acute at base, much shorter than their wings; outer seed-coat crustaceous, light or dark brown, the inner membranaceous, pale chestnut-brown; cotyledons 4—15.
Picea is widely distributed through the colder and temperate regions of the northern hemisphere, some species forming great forests on plains and high mountain slopes. Thirty-seven species are now recognized, ranging from the Arctic Circle to the slopes of the southern Appalachian Mountains and to those of northern New Mexico and Arizona in the New World, and to central and southeastern Europe, the Caucasus, the Himalayas, western China, Formosa and Japan. Of exotic species the so-called Norway Spruce, Picea Abies Karst., one of the most valuable timber-trees of Europe, has been largely planted for ornament and shelter in the eastern states, where the Caucasian Picea orientalis Carr., and some of the Japanese species also flourish.
Picea was probably the classical name of the Spruce-tree.
CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES.
Leaves 4-sided, with stomata on the 4 sides. Cone-scales rounded at apex. Cone-scales stiff and rigid at maturity; branchlets pubescent. Cones ovoid on strongly incurved stalks, persistent for many years, their scales erose or dentate; leaves blue-green.1. [P. mariana] (A, B, F). Cones ovoid-oblong, early deciduous, their scales entire or denticulate; leaves dark yellow-green.2. [P. rubra] (A). Cone-scales soft and flexible at maturity; branchlets glabrous; cones oblong-cylindric, slender, their scales entire; leaves blue-green.3. [P. glauca] (A, B, F). Cone-scales truncate or acute at apex, oblong or rhombic; leaves blue-green. Cones oblong-cylindric or ellipsoidal; branchlets pubescent; leaves soft and flexible.4. [P. Engelmannii] (F, B, G). Cones oblong-cylindric; branchlets glabrous; leaves rigid, spinescent.5. [P. pungens] (F). Leaves flattened, usually with stomata only on the upper surface; cone-scales rounded. Cone-scales ovate, entire; branchlets pubescent; cones ellipsoidal, leaves obtuse.6. [P. Breweriana] (G). Cone-scales elliptic, denticulate above the middle; branchlets glabrous; cones oblong-cylindric, leaves acute or acuminate, with stomata occasionally on the lower surface.7. [P. sitchensis] (B, G).
1. [Picea mariana] B. S. P. Black Spruce.
Leaves slightly incurved above the middle, abruptly contracted at apex into short callous tips, pale blue-green and glaucous at maturity, ¼′—¾′ long, hoary on the upper surface from the broad bands of stomata, and lustrous and slightly stomatiferous on the lower surface. Flowers: male subglobose, with dark red anthers; female oblong-cylindric, with obovate purple scales rounded above, and oblong purple glaucous bracts rounded and denticulate at apex. Fruit ovoid, pointed, gradually narrowed at the base into short strongly incurved stalks, ½′—1½′ long, with rigid puberulous scales rounded or rarely somewhat pointed at apex and more or less erose on the notched pale margins, turning as they ripen dull gray-brown and becoming as the scales gradually open and slowly discharge their seeds almost globose; sometimes remaining on the branches for twenty or thirty years, the oldest close to the base of the branches near the trunk; seeds oblong, narrowed to the acute base, about ⅛′ long, very dark brown, with delicate pale brown wings broadest above the middle, very oblique at the apex, about ½′ long, ⅛′ wide.
A tree, usually 20°—30° and occasionally 100° high, with a trunk 6′—12′ and rarely 3° in diameter, and comparatively short branches generally pendulous with upward curves, forming an open irregular crown, light green branchlets coated with pale pubescence, soon beginning to grow darker, and during their first winter light cinnamon-brown and covered with short rusty pubescence, their thin brown bark gradually becoming glabrous and beginning to break into small thin scales during their second year; at the extreme north sometimes cone-bearing when only 2°—3° high. Winter-buds ovoid, acute, light reddish brown, puberulous, about ⅛′ long. Bark ¼′—½′ thick and broken on the surface into thin rather closely appressed gray-brown scales. Wood light, soft, not strong, pale yellow-white, with thin sapwood; probably rarely used outside of Manitoba and Saskatchewan, except in the manufacture of paper pulp. Spruce-gum, the resinous exudations of the Spruce-trees of northeastern America, is gathered in considerable quantities principally in northern New England and Canada, and is used as a masticatory. Spruce-beer is made by boiling the branches of the Black and Red Spruces.
Distribution. At the north on well-drained bottom-lands and the slopes of barren stony hills, and southward in sphagnum-covered bogs, swamps, and on their borders, from Labrador to the valley of the Mackenzie River in about latitude 65° north, and, crossing the Rocky Mountains, through the interior of Alaska to the valley of White River; southward through Newfoundland, the maritime provinces, eastern Canada and the northeastern United States to central Pennsylvania, and along the Alleghany Mountains to northern Virginia; and from the eastern foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Alberta, through northern Saskatchewan and northern Manitoba, and south to northeastern and northern Minnesota, and central Wisconsin and Michigan; very abundant at the far north and the largest coniferous tree of Saskatchewan and northern Manitoba, covering here large areas and growing to its largest size; common in Newfoundland and all the provinces of eastern Canada except southern Ontario; in the United States less abundant, of small size, and usually only in cold sphagnum swamps (var. brevifolia Rehd.)
Occasionally planted as an ornamental tree, the Black Spruce is short-lived in cultivation and one of the least desirable of all Spruce-trees for the decoration of parks and gardens.
2. [Picea rubra] Link. Red Spruce.
Picea rubens Sarg.
Leaves more or less incurved above the middle, acute or rounded and furnished at the apex with short callous points, dark green often slightly tinged with yellow, very lustrous, marked on the upper surface by 4 rows and on the lower less conspicuously by 2 rows of stomata on each side of the prominent midrib, ½′—⅝′ long, nearly 1/16′ wide. Flowers: male oval, almost sessile, bright red; female oblong-cylindric, with thin rounded scales reflexed and slightly erose on their margins, and obovate bracts rounded and laciniate above. Fruit on very short straight or incurved stalks, ovoid-oblong, gradually narrowed from near the middle to the acute apex, 1¼′—2′ long, with rigid puberulous scales entire or slightly toothed at the apex; bright green or green somewhat tinged with purple when fully grown, becoming light reddish brown and lustrous at maturity, beginning to fall as soon as the scales open in the autumn or early winter, and generally disappearing from the branches the following summer; seeds dark brown, about ⅛′ long, with short broad wings full and rounded above the middle.
A tree, usually 70°—80° and occasionally 100° high, with a trunk 2°—3° in diameter, branches long-persistent on the stem and clothing it to the ground, forming a narrow rather conical head, or soon disappearing below from trees crowded in the forest, stout pubescent light green branchlets, becoming bright reddish brown or orange-brown during their first winter, glabrous the following year, and covered in their third or fourth year with scaly bark. Winter-buds ovoid, acute, ¼′—⅓′ long, with light reddish brown scales. Bark ¼′—½′ thick, and broken into thin closely appressed irregularly shaped red-brown scales. Wood light, soft, close-grained, not strong, pale slightly tinged with red, with paler sapwood usually about 2′ thick; largely manufactured into lumber in the northeastern states, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, and used for the flooring and construction of houses, for the sounding-boards of musical instruments, and in the manufacture of paper-pulp.
Distribution. Well-drained uplands and mountain slopes, often forming a large part of extensive forests, from Prince Edward Island and the valley of the St. Lawrence southward to the coast of Massachusetts, along the interior hilly part of New England, New York, and northern Pennsylvania and on the slopes of the Alleghany Mountains at elevations above 2500 feet from West Virginia to North Carolina and Tennessee.
Occasionally planted in the eastern states and in Europe as an ornamental tree, but growing in cultivation more slowly than any other Spruce-tree.
3. [Picea glauca] Voss. White Spruce.
Picea canadensis B. S. P.
Leaves crowded on the upper side of the branches by the twisting of those on the lower side, incurved, acute or acuminate with rigid callous tips, pale blue and hoary when they first appear, becoming dark blue-green or pale blue, marked on each of the 4 sides by 3 or 4 rows of stomata, ⅓′—¾′ long. Flowers: male pale red, soon appearing yellow from the thick covering of pollen; female oblong-cylindric, with round nearly entire pale red or yellow-green scales, broader than long, and nearly orbicular denticulate bracts. Fruit nearly sessile or borne on short thin straight stems, oblong-cylindric, slender, slightly narrowed to the ends, rather obtuse at apex, usually about 2′ long, pale green sometimes tinged with red when fully grown, becoming at maturity pale brown and lustrous, with nearly orbicular scales, rounded, truncate, and slightly emarginate, or rarely narrowed at apex, and very thin, flexible and elastic at maturity, usually deciduous in the autumn or during the following winter; seeds about ⅛′ long, pale brown, with narrow wings gradually widened from the base to above the middle and very oblique at the apex.
A tree, with disagreeable smelling foliage, rarely more than 60°—70° tall, with a trunk not more than 2° in diameter, long comparatively thick branches densely clothed with stout rigid laterals sweeping out in graceful upward curves, and forming a broad-based rather open pyramid often obtuse at the apex, stout glabrous branchlets orange-brown during their first autumn and winter, gradually growing darker grayish brown. Winter-buds broadly ovoid, obtuse, covered by light chestnut-brown scales with thin often reflexed ciliate margins. Bark ¼′—½′ thick, separating irregularly into thin plate-like light gray scales more or less tinged with brown. Wood light, soft, not strong, straight-grained light yellow, with hardly distinguishable sapwood; manufactured into lumber in the eastern provinces of Canada and in Alaska, and used in construction, for the interior finish of buildings, and for paper-pulp.
Distribution. Banks and borders of streams and lakes, ocean cliffs, and in the north the rocky slopes of low hills, from Labrador along the northern frontier of the forest nearly to the shores of the Arctic Sea, reaching Behring Strait in 66° 44′ north latitude, and southward down the Atlantic coast to southern Maine, northern New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York, shores of Saginaw Bay, Michigan, northern Wisconsin and Minnesota, and through the interior of Alaska.
The variety (var. albertiana Sarg.) of the Gaspé Peninsula and the valleys of the Black Hills of South Dakota and of the Rocky Mountains of northern Wyoming, Montana, Alberta and northward, is a tree with a narrow pyramidal head, sometimes 150° high, with a trunk 3° to 4° in diameter, and shorter and rather broader cones than those of the typical White Spruce of the east, although not shorter or as short as the cones of that tree in the extreme north.
Often planted in Canada, northern New England, and northern Europe as an ornamental tree; in southern New England and southward suffering from heat and dryness.
4. [Picea Engelmannii] Engelm. White Spruce. Engelmann Spruce.
Leaves soft and flexible, with acute callous tips, slender, nearly straight or slightly incurved on vigorous sterile branches, stouter, shorter, and more incurved on fertile branches, 1′—1⅛′ long, marked on each face by 3—5 rows of stomata, covered at first with a glaucous bloom, soon becoming dark blue-green or pale steel-blue. Flowers: male dark purple; female bright scarlet, with pointed or rounded and more or less divided scales, and oblong bracts rounded or acute or acuminate and denticulate at apex or obovate-oblong and abruptly acuminate. Fruit oblong-cylindric to ellipsoidal, gradually narrowed to the ends, usually about 2′ long, sessile or very short-stalked, produced in great numbers on the upper branches, horizontal and ultimately pendulous, light green somewhat tinged with scarlet when fully grown, becoming light chestnut-brown and lustrous, with thin flexible slightly concave scales, generally erose-dentate or rarely almost entire on the margins, usually broadest at the middle, wedge-shaped below, and gradually contracted above into a truncate or acute apex, or occasionally obovate and rounded above; mostly deciduous in the autumn or early in their first winter soon after the escape of the seeds; seeds obtuse at the base, nearly black, about ⅛′ long and much shorter than their broad very oblique wings.
A tree, with disagreeable smelling foliage sometimes 120° high, with a trunk 3° in diameter, spreading branches produced in regular whorls and forming a narrow compact pyramidal head, gracefully hanging short lateral branches, and comparatively slender branchlets pubescent for three or four years, light or dark orange-brown or gray tinged with brown during their first winter, their bark beginning to separate into small flaky scales in their fourth or fifth year; at its highest altitudes low and stunted with elongated branches pressed close to the ground. Winter-buds conic or slightly obtuse, with pale chestnut-brown scales scarious and often free and slightly reflexed on the margins. Bark ¼′—½′ thick, light cinnamon-red, and broken into large thin loose scales. Wood light, soft, not strong, close-grained, pale yellow tinged with red, with thick hardly distinguishable sapwood; largely manufactured into lumber used in the construction of buildings; also employed for fuel and charcoal. The bark is sometimes employed in tanning leather.
Distribution. High mountain slopes, often forming great forests from the mountains of Alberta, British Columbia and Alaska, southward over the interior mountain systems of the continent to southern New Mexico (the Sacramento Mountains) and northern Arizona, from elevations of 5000° at the north up to 11,500° and occasionally to 12,000° at the south, and westward through Montana and Idaho to the eastern slopes of the Cascade Mountains of Washington and Oregon; attaining its greatest size and beauty north of the northern boundary of the United States.
Occasionally planted as an ornamental tree in the New England states and northern Europe, where it grows vigorously and promises to attain a large size; usually injured in western Europe by spring frosts.
5. [Picea pungens] Englm. Blue Spruce. Colorado Spruce.
Picea Parryana Sarg.
Leaves strongly incurved, especially those on the upper side of the branches, stout, rigid, acuminate and tipped with long callous sharp points, 1′—1⅛′ long on sterile branches, often not more than half as long on the fertile branches of old trees, marked on each side by 4—7 rows of stomata, dull bluish green on some individuals and light or dark steel-blue or silvery white on others, the blue colors gradually changing to dull blue-green at the end of three or four years. Flowers: male yellow tinged with red; female with broad oblong or slightly obovate pale green scales truncate or slightly emarginate at the denticulate apex, and acute bracts. Fruit produced on the upper third of the tree, sessile or short-stalked, oblong-cylindric, slightly narrowed at the ends, usually about 3′ long, green more or less tinged with red when fully grown at midsummer, becoming pale chestnut-brown and lustrous, with flat tough rhombic scales flexuose on the margins, and acute, rounded or truncate at the elongated erose apex; seeds ⅛′ long or about half the length of their wings, gradually widening to above the middle and full and rounded at apex.
A tree, usually 80°—100° or occasionally 150° high, with a trunk rarely 3° in diameter and occasionally divided into 3 or 4 stout secondary stems, rigid horizontal branches disposed on young trees in remote whorls and decreasing regularly in length from below upward, the short stout stiff branchlets pointing forward and making flat-topped masses of foliage; branches on old trees short and remote, with stout lateral branches forming a thin ragged pyramidal crown; branchlets stout, rigid, glabrous, pale glaucous green, becoming bright orange-brown during the first winter and ultimately light grayish brown. Winter-buds stout, obtuse or rarely acute, ¼′—½′ long, with thin pale chestnut-brown scales usually reflexed on the margins. Bark of young trees gray or gray tinged with cinnamon-red and broken into small oblong plate-like scales, becoming on the lower part of old trunks ¾′—1½′ thick and deeply divided into broad rounded ridges covered with small closely appressed pale gray or occasionally bright cinnamon-red scales. Wood light, soft, close-grained, weak, pale brown or often nearly white, with hardly distinguishable sapwood.
Distribution. Banks of streams or on the first benches above them singly or in small groves at elevations between 6500° and 11,000° above the sea; Colorado and eastern Utah northward to the northern end of the Medicine Bow Mountains and on the Laramie Range in southern and on the Shoshone and Teton Mountains in northwestern Wyoming, and southward into northern New Mexico (Sierra Bianca, alt. 8000°—11,000°, Sacramento Mountains, Pecos River National Forest).
Often planted as an ornamental tree in the eastern and northern states and in western and northern Europe, especially individuals with blue foliage; very beautiful in early life but in cultivation soon becoming unsightly from the loss of the lower branches.
6. [Picea Breweriana] S. Wats. Weeping Spruce.
Leaves abruptly narrowed and obtuse at apex, straight or slightly incurved, rounded and obscurely ridged and dark green and lustrous on the lower surface, flattened and conspicuously marked on the upper surface by 4 or 5 rows of stomata on each side of the prominent midrib, ¾′—1⅛′ long, 1/16′—1/10′ wide. Flowers: male dark purple; female oblong-cylindric, with obovate scales rounded above and reflexed on the entire margins, and oblong bracts laciniately divided at their rounded or acute apex. Fruit ellipsoidal, gradually narrowed from the middle to the ends, acute at apex, rather oblique at base, suspended on straight slender stalks, deep rich purple or green more or less tinged with purple when fully grown, becoming light orange-brown, 2′—4′ long, with thin broadly ovate flat scales longer than broad, rounded at apex, opening late in the autumn after the escape of the seeds, often becoming strongly reflexed and very flexible; usually remaining on the branches until their second winter; seeds acute at base, full and rounded on the sides, ⅛′ long, dark brown, and about one quarter the length of their wings broadest toward the full and rounded apex.
A tree, usually 80°—100° high, with a trunk 2°—3° in diameter above the swelling of its enlarged and gradually tapering base, and furnished to the ground with crowded branches, those at the top of the tree short and slightly ascending, with comparatively short pendulous lateral branches, those lower on the tree horizontal or pendulous and clothed with slender flexible whip-like laterals often 7°—8° long and not more than ¼′ thick and furnished with numerous long thin lateral branchlets, their ultimate divisions slender, coated with fine pubescence persistent until their third season, bright red-brown during their first winter, gradually growing dark gray-brown. Winter-buds conic, light chestnut-brown, ¼′ long and ⅛′ thick. Bark ½′—¾′ thick, broken into long thin closely appressed scales dull red-brown on the surface. Wood heavy, soft, close-grained, light brown or nearly white, with thick hardly distinguishable sapwood.
Distribution. Dry mountain ridges and peaks near the timber-line on both slopes of the Siskiyou Mountains on the boundary between California and Oregon, forming small groves at elevations of about 7000° above the sea; on a high peak west of Marble Mountain in Siskiyou County, California; on the coast ranges of southwestern Oregon at elevations of 4000°—5000°.
7. [Picea sitchensis] Carr. Tideland Spruce. Sitka Spruce.
Leaves standing out from all sides of the branches and often nearly at right angles to them, frequently bringing their white upper surface to view by a twist at their base, straight or slightly incurved, acute or acuminate with long callous tips, slightly rounded, green, lustrous, and occasionally marked on the lower surface with 2 or 3 rows of small conspicuous stomata on each side of the prominent midrib, flattened, obscurely ridged and almost covered with broad silvery white bands of numerous rows of stomata on the upper surface, ½′—1⅛′ long and 1/16′—1/12′ wide, mostly persistent 9—11 years. Flowers: male at the ends of the pendant lateral branchlets, dark red; female on rigid terminal shoots of the branches of the upper half of the tree, with nearly orbicular denticulate scales, often slightly truncate above and completely hidden by their elongated acuminate bracts. Fruit oblong-cylindric, short-stalked, yellow-green often tinged with dark red when fully grown, becoming lustrous and pale yellow or reddish brown, 2½′—4′ long, with thin stiff elliptic scales rounded toward the apex, denticulate above the middle, and nearly twice as long as their lanceolate denticulate bracts; deciduous mostly during their first autumn and winter; seeds full and rounded, acute at the base, pale reddish brown, about ⅛′ long, with narrow oblong slightly oblique wings ⅓′—½′ in length.
A tree, usually about 100° high, with a conspicuously tapering trunk often 3°—4° in diameter above its strongly buttressed and much-enlarged base, occasionally 200° tall, with a trunk 15°—16° in diameter, horizontal branches forming an open loose pyramid and on older trees clothed with slender pendant lateral branches frequently 2°—3° long, and stout rigid glabrous branchlets pale green at first, becoming dark or light orange-brown during their first autumn and winter and finally dark gray-brown; at the extreme northwestern limits of its range occasionally reduced to a low shrub. Winter-buds ovoid, acute or conical, ¼′—½′ long, with pale chestnut-brown acute scales, often tipped with short points and more or less reflexed above the middle. Bark ¼′—½′ thick and broken on the surface into large thin loosely attached dark red-brown or on young trees sometimes bright cinnamon-red scales. Wood light, soft, not strong, straight-grained, light brown tinged with red, with thick nearly white sapwood; largely manufactured into lumber used in the interior finish of buildings, for fencing, boat-building, aeroplanes, cooperage, wooden-ware, and packing-cases.
Distribution. Moist sandy, often swampy soil, or less frequently at the far north on wet rocky slopes, from the eastern end of Kadiak Island, southward through the coast region of Alaska, British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon to Mendocino County, California; in Washington, occasionally ranging inland to the upper valley of the Nesqually River.
Often planted in western and central Europe and occasionally in the middle Atlantic states as an ornamental tree.