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Black spruce
Picea mariana
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 A small, slow-growing tree, up to 20 metres tall and 25 centimetres in diameter. It
often has a characteristic cluster of branches at the top forming a club or crow's nest.
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Leaves
Needles are blue-green, short, stiff, and four-sided. The needles are
arranged in all directions along the twig or mostly pointing upwards.Cones
Seed cones are small and purplish. The old cones hang on the tree for
several years. Pollen cones are dark red. |
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Bark
The bark is thin, scaly and dark greenish-brown.Where to find black spruce
It grows throughout the northern part of the province. |
Habitat
Black spruce tolerates poor growing conditions. It often occurs in pure
groups of trees or with lodgepole pine and white spruce. It is frequently found in cold,
poorly drained areas, such as swamps and bogs, along with sphagnum mosses and horsetails.
Lingonberry and Labrador tea are also plentiful. Black spruce forests are rich in
wildlife. Moose, muskrat, and mink are numerous and many birds eat the abundant insects in
these wet, boggy areas. |
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Uses
The Carrier people used black spruce wood to make fish traps. Other
aboriginal people made snowshoe frames and drying racks. They also used powdered resin on
wounds to speed healing. The long fibres in black spruce make this a
preferred pulp species for paper products
Notes
The name mariana means "of Maryland." Phillip Miller, who
named the species, felt that Maryland epitomized North America - but the species does not
actually grow there! |
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