Picea abies
| Picea abies | |
|---|---|
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| Norway spruce | |
| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Division: | Pinophyta |
| Class: | Pinopsida |
| Order: | Pinales |
| Family: | Pinaceae |
| Genus: | Picea |
| Species: | P. abies |
| Binomial name | |
| Picea abies (L.) H.Karst. |
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| Range | |
| Synonyms | |
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Picea excelsa Link (nom. illeg.) |
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Norway spruce (Picea abies) is a species of spruce native to Europe. It is also commonly referred to as the European spruce.
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Description [edit]
It is a large, fast-growing evergreen coniferous tree growing to 35-55 m (115–180 ft) tall and with a trunk diameter of up to 1-1.5 m. The shoots are orange-brown and glabrous (hairless). The leaves are needle-like, 12–24 mm long, quadrangular in cross-section (not flattened), and dark green on all four sides with inconspicuous stomatal lines. The cones are 9–17 cm long (the longest of any spruce), and have bluntly to sharply triangular-pointed scale tips. They are green or reddish, maturing brown 5–7 months after pollination. The seeds are black, 4–5 mm long, with a pale brown 15 mm wing.[1][2][3][4][5]
The tallest measured Norway spruce, 63 m (207 ft) tall, is in Perucica Virgin Forest, Sutjeska National Park, Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Populations in southeast Europe tend to have on average longer cones with more pointed scales; these are sometimes distinguished as Picea abies var. acuminata (Beck) Dallim. & A.B.Jacks., but there is extensive overlap in variation with trees from other parts of the range.[1][2][3]
Some botanists treat Siberian spruce as a subspecies of Norway spruce, though in their typical forms, they are very distinct, the Siberian spruce having cones only 5–10 cm long, with smoothly rounded scales, and pubescent (hairy) shoots.[1][2][3] Genetically Norway and Siberian spruces have turned out to be extremely similar and may be considered as two closely related subspecies of P. abies.[6]
Another spruce with smoothly rounded cone scales and hairy shoots occurs rarely in the central Alps in eastern Switzerland. It is also distinct in having thicker, blue-green leaves. Many texts treat this as a variant of Norway spruce, but it is as distinct as many other spruces, and appears to be more closely related to Siberian spruce (Picea obovata), Schrenk's spruce (Picea schrenkiana) from central Asia and Morinda spruce (Picea smithiana) in the Himalaya. Treated as a distinct species, it takes the name Alpine spruce (Picea alpestris (Brügger) Stein). As with Siberian spruce, it hybridises extensively with Norway spruce; pure specimens are rare. Hybrids are commonly known as Norwegian spruce, which should not be confused with the pure species Norway spruce.[1][2][3]
Range [edit]
Norway spruce grows throughout Europe from Norway in the northwest and Poland eastward, and also in the mountains of central Europe, southwest to the western end of the Alps, and southeast in the Carpathians and Balkans to the extreme north of Greece. The northern limit is in the arctic, just north of 70°N in Norway. Its eastern limit in Russia is hard to define, due to extensive hybridisation and intergradation with the Siberian spruce (Picea obovata, syn. P. abies subsp. obovata), but is usually given as the Ural Mountains. However, trees showing some Siberian spruce characters extend as far west as much of northern Finland, with a few records in northeast Norway. The hybrid is known as Picea × fennica (or P. abies subsp. × fennica, if the two taxa are considered subspecies), and can be distinguished by a tendency towards having hairy shoots and cones with smoothly rounded scales.[1][2][3] In North America, Norway spruce is widely planted, specifically in the northeastern, Pacific Coast, and Rocky Mountain states, as well as in southeastern Canada. There are naturalized populations occurring from Connecticut to Michigan, and it is probable that they occur elsewhere.[7] Norway spruces are more tolerant of hot, humid weather than many conifers which do not thrive except in cool-summer areas.
Uses and ecology [edit]
The Norway spruce is one of the most widely planted spruces, both in and outside of its native range, and one of the most economically important coniferous species in Europe.[7] It is used in forestry for timber and paper production, and as an ornamental tree in parks and gardens. It is esteemed as a source of tonewood[8] It is also widely planted for use as a Christmas tree. Every Christmas, the Norwegian capital city, Oslo, provides the cities of New York, London (the Trafalgar Square Christmas tree), Edinburgh and Washington D.C. with a Norway spruce, which is placed at the most central square of each city. This is mainly a sign of gratitude for the aid these countries gave during the Second World War.
It is naturalised in some parts of North America, though not so extensively as to be considered an invasive weed tree. It can grow fast when young, up to 1 m per year for the first 25 years under good conditions, but becomes slower once over around 20 m tall.[9]
The Norway spruce tolerates acidic soils well, but does not do well on dry or deficient soils. From 1928 until the 1960s it was planted on surface mine spoils in Indiana.[7]
The Norway spruce can be used to make spruce beer, which was once used to prevent and even cure scurvy. [10]
Cultivars [edit]
Several cultivars have been selected for garden use; they are occasionally traded under the obsolete scientific name Picea excelsa (an Illegitimate name). The following cultivars have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit:-
Insects [edit]
Norway spruce cone scales are used as food by the caterpillars of the tortrix moth Cydia illutana, while C. duplicana feeds on the bark around injuries or canker.
World's "oldest clone" [edit]
A press release from Umeå University says that a Norway spruce clone named Old Tjikko, carbon dated as 9,550 years old, is the "oldest living tree."[13]
However, Pando, a stand of 47,000 Quaking Aspen clones, is estimated to be between 80,000 and one million years old.[14][15][16]
The stress is on the difference between the singular "oldest tree" and the multiple "oldest trees", and between "oldest clone" and "oldest non-clone". The oldest known individual tree (that has not taken advantage of vegetative cloning) is Methuselah, a Great Basin Bristlecone Pine.
Chemistry [edit]
p-Hydroxybenzoic acid glucoside, picein, piceatannol and its glucoside (astringin), isorhapontin (the isorhapontigenin glucoside), catechin and ferulic acid are phenolic compounds found in mycorrhizal and non-mycorrhizal roots of Norway spruces.[17] Piceol[18] and astringin[19] are also found in P. abies.
Gallery [edit]
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Silesian Beskids, Poland
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Shoots of a young Norway spruce.
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Cone.
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19th century illustration.
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Three Pineapple galls developing on Norway spruce.
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Closeup of bark
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Old Tjikko is the oldest Norway spruce in the world, considering its root system
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Picea abies - MHNT
References [edit]
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Picea abies |
- ^ a b c d e Farjon, A. (1990). Pinaceae. Drawings and Descriptions of the Genera. Koeltz Scientific Books ISBN 3-87429-298-3.
- ^ a b c d e Rushforth, K. (1987). Conifers. Helm ISBN 0-7470-2801-X.
- ^ a b c d e Gymnosperm Database: Picea abies
- ^ Conifer Specialist Group (1998). Picea abies. 2006. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. www.iucnredlist.org. Retrieved on 12 May 2006.
- ^ Den Virtuella Floran: Picea abies distribution (in Swedish, with maps)
- ^ Krutovskii, K.V. & Bergmann, F.: Introgressive hybridization and phylogenetic relationships between Norway, Picea abies (L.) Karst., and Siberian, P. obovata Ledeb., spruce species studied by isozyme loci. - Heredity 74 (1995): 464-480. http://www.nature.com/hdy/journal/v74/n5/pdf/hdy199567a.pdf
- ^ a b c United States Forest Service., “Index of Species Information: Picea Abies” [1] Retrieved on 18 November 2009.
- ^ Here is more than you perhaps ever cared to know about European spruce...
- ^ Mitchell, A. F. (1974). A Field Guide to the Trees of Britain and Northern Europe. Collins ISBN 0-00-212035-6
- ^ Karellp. "New Beer - Spruce Beer". The Black Creek Growler. Retrieved September 30, 2012.
- ^ http://apps.rhs.org.uk/plantselector/plant?plantid=3821
- ^ http://apps.rhs.org.uk/plantselector/plant?plantid=1459
- ^ Umeå University Press Release: World’s oldest living tree discovered in Sweden. April 16, 2008.
- ^ Quaking Aspen by the Bryce Canyon National Park Service
- ^ Genetic Variation and the Natural History of Quaking Aspen, Mitton, J. B. & Grant, M. C. (1996). BioScience 46 (1): 25-31.
- ^ Swedish Spruce Is World's Oldest Tree: Scientific American Podcast
- ^ Phenolics of mycorrhizas and non-mycorrhizal roots of Norway spruce. Babette Münzenberger, Jürgen Heilemann, Dieter Strack, Ingrid Kottke and Franz Oberwinkler, Planta, Volume 182, Number 1, pages 142-148, doi:10.1007/BF00239996
- ^ Picein and piceol concentrations in Norway spruce. Hans Løkke, Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety, Volume 19, Issue 3, June 1990, Pages 301–309, doi:10.1016/0147-6513(90)90032-Z
- ^ Stilbenes and resin acids in relation to the penetration of Heterobasidion annosum through the bark of Picea abies. M. Lindberg, L. Lundgren, R. Gref and M. Johansson, European Journal of Forest Pathology, May 1992, Volume 22, Issue 2, pages 95–106, doi:10.1111/j.1439-0329.1992.tb01436.x
