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Red Spruce

Picea rubens

Summary 7

Picea rubens (red spruce) is a species of spruce native to eastern North America, ranging from eastern Quebec to Nova Scotia, and from New England south in the Adirondack Mountains and Appalachians to western North Carolina.

Description 8

Red spruce reaches heights of 60 to 80 feet with trunk diameters of nearly two feet. Larger sizes are attained in the southern Appalachians. Needles are four sided, dark, shiny, yellow-green, and about 1/2 inch long, growing singly from all sides of the twigs and branches. The slender new twigs have a reddish coat of down through the first year. This, together with the short incurved needles, help distinguish red spruce from most other spruces. There are about 139,000 seeds per pound.

Habitat and ecology 9

Habitat and Ecology

Picea rubens occurs from near sea level on the coasts of the maritime provinces of Canada, to the higher slopes of the Appalachian Mountains (1,100 m to 1,500 m a.s.l.). In the NE lowland areas the species grows mainly on acid soils (pH 4-5.5) of alluvial origin, in the mountains also on acidic, peaty or rocky soils generally unfavorable for most of the other tree species of NE North America. It is climatically restricted to areas with a cool, moist oceanic climate, with annual precipitation between 875 mm and 2,000 mm (increasing with elevation). It is commonly mixed with Picea glauca or Abies balsamea, more rarely with Picea mariana, which occupies swamps and bogs but may extend to drier sites. Rare or local associated conifers are Abies fraseri,Tsuga canadensis, Pinus strobus, and Chamaecyparis thyoides. Broad-leaved trees can be common or dominant, especially on better soils.

Systems
  • Terrestrial

Associations 10

In Great Britain and/or Ireland:
Foodplant / parasite
hypophyllous telium of Chrysomyxa abietis parasitises live leaf of Picea rubens
Remarks: season: 3-5

Damaging agents 11

The shallow root system, thin bark, and  flammable needles of red spruce make trees of all ages very susceptible to  fire damage (11). The acreage of red spruce originally present in the  southern Appalachians has been reduced to a fraction of what it once was  by fire and clearcutting (22). Many former spruce sites are occupied by  inferior tree species, blackberries, and ferns after 20 years (47).

    The most important insect enemy of red spruce is the spruce budworm,  Choristoneura fumiferana. Although red spruce is much less  vulnerable to damage than balsam fir or white spruce, largely due to later  bud flushing in the spring (3), much damage and mortality occur in stands  containing large quantities of mature balsam fir. Blum and McLean (4)  suggest that factors such as stand age, species composition, density, and  vigor contribute to the vulnerability of spruce-fir stands to budworm  damage and suggest steps to alleviate damage. Additional, detailed  information may also be found in Sanders, et al. (42) for  spruce-fir stands in the Northeast, the Lake States, and Canada.

    The eastern spruce beetle, Dendroctonus rufipennis, damages  mature trees of red spruce. Two species of sawflies, the European spruce  sawfly, Diprion hercyniae, and the native yellowheaded spruce  sawfly, Pikonema alaskensis, have severely defoliated red spruce  in localized areas (22). The eastern spruce gall adelgid, Adelges  abietis, can be a serious pest on spruce when abundant. The pine leaf  adelgid, Pineus pinifoliae, forms unsightly but relatively  harmless conelike galls on red and black spruce (Picea mariana), which  are alternate hosts (46).

    Red spruce has few diseases. Needle cast caused by Lirula macrospora  may result in severe defoliation of the lower crown and a subsequent  reduction of growth. Phellinus pini and Phaeolus schweinitzii,  the most destructive of red spruce wood-rotting fungi, are usually  confined to overmature or damaged trees. Climacocystis borealis causes  butt rot in overmature trees (22). Trees are occasionally attacked by Armillaria  mellea and Inonotus tomentosa.

    All along the eastern Appalachian mountain chain, from the New England  states to Georgia, growth has declined in high-elevation red spruce since  the 1960's (25). In recent years, this decline has been accompanied by  increased mortality and crown damage in high-elevation red spruce.  Apparently, no significant natural biotic or abiotic causal agents have  been identified, although it has been hypothesized that interaction among  naturally occurring insect and disease factors and anthropogenic air  pollutants, or air pollutants acting alone, are at the root of the  problem. Sulphur dioxide (S02), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and  volatile organic compounds are the pollutants of primary concern;  secondary pollutants such as ozone and nitric and sulfuric acids are also  believed to be important factors (29).

    Growth decline and mortality in low-elevation red spruce in northern New  England, while increasing in some areas, appear to be within the normal  ranges for trees and forests of various ages, compositions, and density.  However, some foliar symptoms have been detected in both red spruce and  white pine, particularly from ozone exposure.

    Red spruce is occasionally infected with eastern dwarf mistletoe, Arceuthobium  pusillum, a parasite causing growth reduction, tree mortality, and  degradation of wood quality (24).

    Mice and voles have been found to consume and store significant amounts  of spruce seeds in preference to those of balsam fir, suggesting one  reason for the low ratio of spruce to fir seedlings commonly found in  naturally regenerated stands (1,23). Wildlife damage to the terminal buds  of young spruce, presumably by birds, also has been noted (2). Some injury  and mortality are also caused occasionally by porcupines, bears, deer, and  yellow-bellied sapsuckers (11). Red squirrels clip twigs and terminals and  eat reproductive and vegetative buds (41).

Fire management considerations 12

More info for the terms: competition, fire exclusion, fire management, fuel, natural, prescribed fire, tree

Some managers believe that prescribed fire may be a useful silvicultural
tool for managing red spruce on some sites. On such sites, the exposed
mineral soil must have plentiful moisture, soil temperatures must be
moderate, and competition must be minimal [65]. In general, however,
fires in red spruce habitat are of little silvicultural value [87].
Slash burning following logging kills advance reproduction and creates
rank postfire vegetation that delays any new seedling establishment
[39].

The fire management plan for Acadia National Park, Maine, dictates the
suppression of natural fires. Prescribed fires may be used on occasion
to reduce fuels [61]. Patterson and others [60] estimated fuel loadings
for a number of stands in Acadia National Park that contained red
spruce. They concluded that fire exclusion was probably resulting in
increased fuel loads.

Alexander [4] compiled slash fuel indices for red spruce and compared
actual fire spread, intensity, and slash and organic layer depletions
with those predicted by the Canadian Forest Fire Danger Rating System.
Freeman and others [24] developed equations to determine average crown
weight per tree as a function of tree height and diameter for use in a
method to predict slash weight after logging red spruce.

Threats 13

Major Threats

Picea rubens was extensively exploited for its timber during the 19th and early 20th centuries, especially in the southern part of its range in the Appalachian Mountains. During this period it was also significantly affected by fires and the clearance of forests for agriculture. More recently (the last 100 years), this species has been affected by atmospheric pollutants and acid deposition. However, a recent survey of this species across its natural range in the USA found that there was no significant decline and that in most areas it was expanding its area of occupancy (Nowacki 2010).

Cover value 14

More info for the term: cover

Red spruce provides thermal and loafing cover for spruce grouse in
winter [62].

Comments 15

Throughout the Appalachians, trees of Picea rubens are dying, possibly as a consequence of environmental pollution. In eastern Canada this species hybridizes to a limited extent with P . mariana (A.G. Gordon 1976). 

 Red spruce ( Picea rubens ) is the provincial tree of Nova Scotia.

Sources and Credits

  1. (c) David Siu, some rights reserved (CC BY), http://www.flickr.com/photos/7400937@N07/5101750027
  2. (c) Gerrit Davidse, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://images.mobot.org/tropicosthumbnails/TropicosImages2/100138000/100138782.jpg
  3. (c) BlueRidgeKitties, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2760/4503711837_4ca78ecc78.jpg
  4. (c) Forest Wander from Cross Lanes, USA, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/67/Picea_rubens_Blackwater_Canyon.jpg
  5. (c) Forest Wander from Cross Lanes, USA, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/Picea_rubens_Bear_Rock_WV.jpg
  6. (c) Forest Wander from Cross Lanes, USA, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ef/Picea_rubens_Dolly_Sods_WV.jpg
  7. (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picea_rubens
  8. Public Domain, http://eol.org/data_objects/1390312
  9. (c) International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/34650340
  10. (c) BioImages, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/22922486
  11. (c) Unknown, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://eol.org/data_objects/22777311
  12. Public Domain, http://eol.org/data_objects/24641864
  13. (c) International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/34650341
  14. Public Domain, http://eol.org/data_objects/24641853
  15. (c) Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/19824322

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