226 TREES IN WINTER 



RED SPRUCE 



Picea rubra (Du Roi) Dietr. 

 P. nigra, var. rubra Engelm. ; P. ruhens Sarg. 



HABIT — A tree 40-75 ft, in height with a trunk diameter of 1-2^ 

 ft.; trunk straight, slowly tapering-; branches toward the middle of the 

 tree horizontal with upcurved tips; more or less strongly declined 

 toward the base forming a narrow conical head somewhat broader than 

 that of the Black Spruce; foliage dark yellowish-green. 



BARK — Reddish-brown, flaky with thin scales. 



TWIGS — Brown, more or less densely covered with short rusty to 

 black hairs, 



LiEAF-SCARS — Alternate, more than 2-ranked, on strongly projecting 

 decurrent ridges of the bark. BUNDLE-SCARS — single. 



LEAVES — Dark yellowish-green, 4-angled, 10-20 mm. long, blunt- 

 pointed, straight or curved, without proper leaf-stalks. 



BUDS — Ovate, pointed, reddish-brown. 



FRUIT — Ovate-oblong cones, l%-2 inches long, with short stalks not 

 at all or but slightly recurved, falling the first autumn or sometimes 

 remaining on the tree a year longer. SCALES — stiff, thin; margin 

 rounded, entire or slightly toothed. 



COMPARISONS — The Red Spruce from its close resemblance to the 

 Black Spruce is considered by some authors as merely a variety of this 

 latter species (see Black Spruce under Comparisons). It differs from 

 the White and the Blue Spruce by its hairy twigs and yellowish-green 

 foliage and from the Norway Spruce by its shorter cones. 



DISTRIBUTION — Cool, rich woods, well-drained valleys, slopes of 

 mountains not infrequently extending down to the borders of swamps. 

 Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia along the valley of the St. 

 Lawrence; south along the Alleghanies to Georgia, ascending to an alti- 

 tude of 4,500 feet in the Adirondacks, and 4,000-5,000 feet in West 

 Virginia; west through the northern tier of states to Minnesota. 



IN NEW ENGLAND — Maine — throughout; most common towards the 

 coast and in the extreme north, thus forming a belt around the 

 central area, where it is often quite wanting except on cool or elevated 

 slopes; New Hampshire — throughout; the most abundant conifer of upper 

 Coos, the White Mountain region where it climbs to the alpine area, 

 and the higher parts of the Connecticut-Merrimac watershed; Vermont 

 — throughout; the common Spruce of the Green Mountains, often in 

 dense groves on rocky slopes with thin soil; Massachusetts — common in 

 the mountainous regions of Berkshire county and on uplands in the 

 northern sections, occasional southward; Connecticut — rare, Litchfield, 

 Canaan, Salisbury; Rhode Island — not reported. 



W^OOD — Light, soft, close-grained, not strong, pale, slightly tinged 

 with red, with paler sapwood generally about 2 inches thick; largely 

 manufactured into lumber in the northeastern states and used for the 

 flooring and construction of houses, for the sounding-boards of musical 

 instruments and in the manufacture of paper pulp. 



