What is a spruce tree?
A spruce is a coniferous evergreen tree of the genus Picea, which contains some 37 species in the family Pinaceae. Spruces grow in the northern temperate and boreal, or taiga, regions of the Northern Hemisphere.
Questions about Spruce
Short answers, pulled from the story.
How can you identify a spruce tree?
Spruces have four-sided needles that are more or less square in cross-section and attach singly to small peg-like structures called pulvini, which remain on the twig after the needle falls. The structure of the cone scales, including length, width, immature colour, and shape of the apex, is the most useful feature for identifying individual spruce species.
How old is the oldest spruce tree?
The oldest reported age for a single spruce tree is 852 years, recorded for a specimen of Picea engelmannii. A Norway spruce clonal group in Dalarna, Sweden, nicknamed Old Tjikko, has reproduced by layering and reached a claimed age of 9,550 years for the clone as a whole, though not for its individual small trees.
What is spruce wood used for?
Spruce is a major producer of timber for construction and pulp for paper, and it is the standard material for the soundboards of stringed instruments such as acoustic guitars. The Wright brothers' first aircraft, the Flyer, was built of spruce, and spruce pulp is used to make tissue paper.
Why is spruce used to make violins and guitars?
Spruce is the standard tonewood used in the soundboards of stringed instruments. Engelmann spruce is used in North America and Sitka spruce in Europe, and the Norway spruces of the Paneveggio Violins Forest in the Dolomites have been used for centuries, supposedly including by the violin-maker Antonio Stradivari.
What pests and diseases affect spruce trees?
Major pests of spruce include the green spruce aphid, eastern spruce budworm, European spruce bark beetle, and great spruce bark beetle. Diseases include Sirococcus blight caused by the fungus Sirococcus tsugae, Rhizosphaera needle cast, and canker disease caused by Leucostoma kunzei.
How old is the spruce genus in the fossil record?
The Picea lineage begins in the fossil record around 130 million years ago, and the oldest known spruce fossil comes from the Early Cretaceous of western Canada, around 136 million years old. The only surviving branch of the lineage diverged only around 30 million years ago, so the rest of the crown group has no living descendants.