Picea – reportedly derived from pix (Latin), meaning pitch in reference to the sticky resin typically found in spruce bark
Native range: N. Hemisphere
Leaves:
- needle-like, narrow, stiff
- 0.5–1.5” long
- often 4 angled with stomata on all sides
- spirally arranged
- usually very sharp to the touch
Cones:
- monoecious
- male cones:
- at or near end of branches
- elongate
- red or purple when young
- female cones:
- pendulous
- many rounded, pointed overlapping scales
- often very thin and “papery”
- “torn” apex
- 1–6” length
- seeds have single long wing
Other notes:
- trees to 250 ft.
- evergreen
- often w/ hanging branchlets and scaly bark
- branchlets have peg-like stalks bearing leaves, which remain when the leaves fall off
- “sharp spruce, fine fur (fir)”
- “never shake hands with a spruce”