White spruce

Picea glauca

Foliage Type:

needle

Arrangement:

single

Distinguishing features: leaves - 1/3" to 3/4" long, linear, 4-sided, blue-green with white to bluish-white waxy covering leaves - tend to crowd on the upper side of the branch leaves - pungent odor when crushed cones - pendent, 1 & 1/2" to 2 & 1/4" long, narrowly oblong and light brown bark - thin, flaky or scaly, ashy brown

Habitats:	dry mesic sites mesic sites wet mesic sites
Often confused with:	Black spruce Balsam fir
Ecological Value:	cones eaten by squirrels, chipmunks and birds nesting habitat for birds and squirrels
Did You Know?	White spruce is one of the most widely distributed conifers of Canada. typically grow from 60 to 70 feet tall and 18 to 24 inches in diameter. The maximum size is 184 feet tall and 4 feet in diameter.
Uses / Ethnobotanical uses:	roots used for sewing, lacing birchbark canoes and making woven baskets gum used as a chalk on canoes and birchbark pails Christmas trees (although needles fall out when dry) pulp for paper sounding boards in pianos, interior finishing and boatbuilding tannin and "burgundy pitch" used in varnishes and medicinal compounds turpentine inner bark ground and added to flour (in desperate times of food) landscaping