Genus Picea, Link. (Spruce)

Leaves - simple; indeterminate in position because of their closeness; arranged singly all around the branchlets. Leaf - needle-shaped, five twelfths to three fourths of an inch long, four-sided, curved, sharp, rather slender, bluish-green, much lighter than the leaf of the Black Spruce. Bark - lighter than that of the Black Spruce. Cones - one to two inches long, and always in the proportion of about two inches in length to one half or three fourths of an inch in thickness; drooping at the ends of the branchlets; long oval or cylinder-shape; pale green when young, becoming brownish as they ripen. Scales - broad reverse egg-shape, with an entire edge, and rounded or somewhat two-lobed at the apex. Found - in Maine, Northeastern Vermont, Northern Michigan, Minnesota, and far northward, on low ground and in swamps. It is most common north of the United States boundaries. General Information - An evergreen tree, forty to seventy feet high. One of the most important of the Northern timber trees.

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