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Black Spruce

Picea mariana

Traditional Indigenous Names 4

Cree: Kakitéwi Minahik
Ojibwe: Zesegaandag
Ojibwe-Cree: Shikop
Dene: Ehl
Michif: La nipinet nwayr

Summary from Wikipedia 5

Picea mariana, the black spruce, is a North American species of spruce tree in the pine family. It is widespread across Canada, found in all 10 provinces and all 3 Arctic territories. Its range extends into northern parts of the United States: in Alaska, the Great Lakes region, and the upper Northeast. It is a frequent part of the biome known as taiga or boreal forest.

Easy identifiers 4

Black Spruce have a fairly straight trunk and narrow crown. They have needles that grow densely all around the twig, and each needle has a blunt tip. Black Spruce cones range from dark red to purple when they are new closed cones, and are brown as open cones. Black spruce cones usually remain on the tree for quite a while and can accumulate at the top branches. Sometimes this creates an appearance of a club at the top of the tree.

Form 4

A dense evergreen tree; crown generally irregularly pyramidal and symmetrical but tip often club-shaped; lower branches drooping, lowest branches with tips upturned.

Bark 4

Thin, brown-to-greyish scales; inner bark olive-greenish tinged.

Twigs 4

Irregularly whorled, hairy, light brown when young, darkening with age, roughened by outward pointing leaf bases. Buds slightly hairy, 3 - 5 millimetres (1/8 inch) long with many overlapping brown scales.

Leaves 4

Single, short stalked, sharp-pointed, stiff, four-sided, bluish green, whitened along sides, needle-like, about 8 - 15 millimetres (1/2 inch) long.

Flowers 4

May, solitary on preceding year's twig, dark red or purple, oval.

Fruit 4

Egg-shaped cones about 2 - 3 centimetres (1 inch) long with thin brown scales, usually remain on the tree for more than one year; most trees have a cluster of persistent cones near the top.

Occurrence 4

Wide-spread throughout the forested region; in the south mostly in bogs or wet habitats but often on mineral soil in the west and north.

Fun facts 4

Black Spruce is often used as pulpwood to make things like tissue. Black spruce is very common and can be found in every province in Canada. Black spruce can grow in many different environmental conditions, it can survive in very wet, dry, and rocky environments.

Sources and Credits

  1. (c) Manitoba Forestry, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Manitoba Forestry
  2. (c) ceaustin, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by ceaustin
  3. (c) Arthur Chapman, some rights reserved (CC BY), http://www.flickr.com/photos/32005048@N06/3899164918
  4. (c) Manitoba Forestry, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)
  5. Adapted by Manitoba Forestry from a work by (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picea_mariana

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