White Spruce Seeds 25 Count Picea glauca Also known as Canadian Spruce, Eastern Spruce, Black Hills Spruce, Skunk Spruce, Cat Spruce, Engelmann Spruce Description: Tree with rows of horizontal branches forming a conical crown; smaller and shrubby at tree line. Height: 40-100' (12-30 m). (Can grow up to 40 meters in height and 1 meter in diameter) Diameter: 1-2' (0.3-0.6 m). Needles: Evergreen; 1/2-3/4 (12-19 mm) long. Stiff, 4-angled, sharp-pointed; spreading mainly on upper side of twig, from very short leafstalks; blue-green, with whitish lines; exuding an odor when crushed. Bark: Gray or brown, thin, smooth or scaly; cut surface of inner bark whitish. Twigs: Orange-brown, slender, hairless, rough, with peg like bases. Cones: 1 1/2-2 1/2"" (4-6 cm) long; cylindrical, shiny light brown, hanging at end of twigs, falling at maturity; cone-scales thin and flexible, margins nearly straight and without teeth; paired brown, long-winged seeds. Habitat: Many soil types in coniferous forests; sometimes in pure stands. Range: Across N. North America near northern limit of trees from Alaska and British Columbia east to Labrador, south to Maine, and west to Minnesota; local in NW. Montana, South Dakota, and Wyoming; from near sea level to timberline at 2000-5000' (610-1524 m). Unique Features: Large tree with a narrow crown; often confused with the Engelmann Spruce; known as Interior Spruce in the central Interior where it interbreeds with Engelmann Spruce; twigs have no hairs. Discussion: This is the foremost pulpwood and generally the most important commercial tree species of Canada. As well as providing lumber for construction, the wood is valued for piano sounding boards, violins, and other musical instruments. White Spruce and Black Spruce are the most widely distributed conifers in North America after Common Juniper, which rarely reaches tree size. Various kinds of wildlife, including deer, rabbits, and grouse, browse spruce foliage in winter. Ethnobotanical: Roots used for sewing, lacing birchbark canoes and making woven baskets; gum used as a chalk on canoes and birchbark pails; Christmas trees (although needles fall out when dry); pulp for paper; sounding boards in pianos, interior finishing and boatbuilding; tannin and ""burgundy pitch"" used in varnishes and medicinal compounds; turpentine; inner bark ground and added to flour (in desperate times of food); landscaping ""
