In preparation for my International Mountain Leader award winter assessment, I need to learn a lot more about the winter environment. To help me do this I thought I would pick one tree a month to research and learn about and write a short blog post on. Any comments or other facts would be much appreciated.
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| Lots of Noway Spruce trees in the Valais |
What tree would come first other than the Norway Spruce (or Picea Abies to give it it's Latin name). The 'Christmas tree' of the Alps, present everywhere, native to Europe and sometimes referred to as the Mountain Spruce.
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| Identification sheet from http://www.wood-database.com/lumber-identification/softwoods/norway-spruce/ Note the different name at the bottom in Latin, there are in fact two Latin names for the Norway Spruce. |
Identification
Height: up to 63m tall (50m in Scotland)
Needles: 15-25mm long, dark green with faint white lines on all sides, stiff, pointed and squared
Cones: up to 25cm long, slender, brown,
Bark: 'coppery grey-brown'
Dark green upwards reaching branches with hanging foliage
Age: lives over 100 years
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| Norway Spruce, close up of needles and cone |
Uses
Paper, construction, christmas trees - most notably in London and New York (although they shed their needles very quickly so are not as common now as they were), musical instrument sound boards. Often planted in gardens as a wind break
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| Bark of a Norway Spruce tree |
Fun facts
- Fast growning, up to 1m per year until around 20years old, low cost softwood, whitish colour timber and fast burner.
- Picea is thought to come from Pix meaning pitch.
- The resin was once used for Turpentine and pitch (for resin).
- It's fresh shoots were once used for making Spruce beer.
- Stradivarius apparently used old ship oars made from it for his violins
- Can withstand winds of up to 100mph as it's roots are deep and spreading
- For more information on the history of Christmas trees look here: http://www.history.com/topics/christmas/history-of-christmas-trees
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