Description: Tree with open, irregular, conical crown of short, horizontal or slightly drooping branches; a prostrate shrub at timberline.

Height: 6-18 m

Diameter: 0.1-0.25 m

Needles: evergreen; 6-15 mm long. Stiff, four-angled, sharp-pointed; spreading on all sides of twig from very short leafstalks; ashy blue-green with whitish lines. Practically odourless when crushed, or may give menthol or balsam aroma.

Bark: grey or blackish, thin scaly; brown beneath; cut surface of inner bark yellowish.

Twigs: brown, slender, hairy, rough, with peg-like bases.

Flowers: Male flowers small, conic, numerous and crimson. Females crowded in upper crown, small, erect, deep red.

Cones: 1.5-3cm long; egg-shaped or rounded, dull grey; curved downwards on short stalk and remaining attached for up to 20-30 years, often clustered near top of crown; cone-scales stiff and brittle, rounded and finely toothed; paired, brown, long-winged seeds.

Habitat: Wet soils and bogs including peats, clays and loams, but also dry peatlands; in coniferous forests; often in pure stands.

Range: Across N North America near northern limit of trees from Alaska and British Columbia east to Labrador, south to N New Jersey, and west to Minnesota; at 600-1500 m (to sea level in the east).

Black Spruce is one of the most widely distributed conifers in North America. The lower branches take root by layering when deep snows bend them to the ground, forming a ring of small trees around a large one. Spruce gum and spruce beer were made from this species and Red Spruce. Although usually a small tree, specimens on Prince Edward Island are up to 60 m tall. The tree is slow-growing (trees 150 years old are only 20 m high), usually 15-25 cm per year, in June and July. Introduced to UK around 1700 to the Fulham garden by Bishop Compton. There are few specimens, but the best have reached over 20m in the New Forest.

Information: Audubon (1980), Lawrence (1985), Mitchell (1988), Bean III.

Source: Weasdale Nurseries, Newbiggin-on-Lune, Cumbria (original three), Crathes Castle Plant sales, Deeside, Scotland.

Purchased: 1993.03.16, by Ann, Sue and Helen Boit, three specimens at 4-5 ft.
1999.05.07 by myself, single pot-grown at 0.5m.

Planted: 1993.04.02, US Strip, North End - one survivor at B51D. The Crathes tree was planted 1999.06.04.

Progress: Buds started to grow quickly in early-mid-June of 1993. However, none of the trees did especially well, one was declared dead within two years, and a second finally lost all its needles in 1997. The third has borne cones every year which indeed remain clustered densely around the tip. It has added new needles but barely grown in height, and does not show promise of becoming happy. Of trees from seed, only one survived its first transplant to a larger pot, and is still tiny. However, the tree from Crathes has looked more convincing, although still slow, and has reached 1.8m by 2004.09.27, about 20cm per year.

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