Red spruce, épinette rouge

Picea australis Small; P. nigra (Aiton) Link var. rubra (DuRoi) Engelmann; P. rubra (DuRoi) Link 1831, not A.Dietrich 1824

Trees to 40m; trunk to 1m diam.; crown narrowly conic. Bark gray-brown to reddish brown. Branches horizontally spreading; twigs not pendent, rather stout, yellow-brown, densely pubescent to glabrate. Buds reddish brown, 5--8mm, apex acute. Leaves 0.8--2.5(--3)cm, 4-angled in cross section, somewhat flexuous, yellow-green to dark green, not glaucous, bearing stomates on all surfaces, apex mostly acute to sharp-pointed. Seed cones 2.3--4.5(--5)cm; scales broadly fan-shaped, broadest near apex, 8--12 ´ 8--12mm, stiff, margin at apex entire to irregularly toothed. 2 n =24.

Upper montane to subalpine forests; 0--2000m; St. Pierre and Miquelon; N.B., N.S., Ont., P.E.I., Que.; Conn., Maine, Md., Mass., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Pa., Tenn., Vt., Va., W.Va.

Throughout the Appalachians, trees of Picea rubens are dying, possibly as a consequence of environmental pollution. In eastern Canada this species hybridizes to a limited extent with P . mariana (A.G. Gordon 1976).

Red spruce ( Picea rubens ) is the provincial tree of Nova Scotia.

SELECTED REFERENCES

Morgenstern, E.K. and J.L. Farrar. 1964. Introgressive Hybridization in Red Spruce and Black Spruce. [Toronto.] [Univ. Toronto, Fac. Forest., Techn. Rep. 4.]