Species:

(Picea mariana (Mill.) Britton, Sterns et Poggenb.)
-> Genus: Picea (Picea) -> Family: Pinaceae (Pinaceae) -> Group: Gymnosperms

Habitus

  • tree in the homeland growing to a height of 20 - 30 m
  • crown is slender, conical, later wide-conical
  • branches grow in whorls, standing almost horizontally
  • bark is reddish, later changes to a scaly peeling bork

Shoots

  • one-year shoots are reddish-brown, in the second year dark brown, glandular hairy

Leaves (assimilation organs)

  • assimilating organs are needle-like
  • needles are 7-15 x 0.4 mm in size, square, pointed, bluish-green, dull, with grayish bands of stomata on the underside
  • they grow in a spiral, are densely arranged, almost evenly covering the upper side of the branches

Flowers

  • wood monoecious, flowers of different sexes, blooms IV – V
  • male (♂) cones are oblong-ovoid, purple, grow in the axils of needles
  • female (♀) cones are broadly ovoid to spherical, purple to violet, short-stalked, grow from buds on the sides of the branches in the upper parts of the crown, initially upright, later drooping

Fruits – seeds

  • the fruit is a cone 20 - 35 x 15 - 20 mm in size (one of the smallest in the spruce genus), broadly ovoid, dark purple before ripening, dark brown to grayish after ripening
  • seed scales they are firm, slightly toothed along the edge

Extension

  • in North America it  forms the polar border of the forest
  • grows from the Atlantic Ocean in the east across the entire continent to Alaska, in the south to Virginia and Wisconsin, between 43° - 68° N. from widths at altitudes of 200 - 1,700 m above the sea level
  • it has been cultivated in Europe since 1700

Ecology

  • undemanding to the climate and soil
  • frost-resistant

Significance

  • decorative woody plant with habit, purple flowers
  • several height and color forms are known
  • it is grown in parks