DWARF ALBERTA SPRUCE, AND WITCH'S BROOMS

WITCH'S BROOM IN A PINE TREE (Google photo)

...DITTO...

...COLLECTING  CUTTINGS  FROM A  WITCH'S BROOM...

DWARF ALBERTA SPRUCE IN THE ODE HERB GARDEN

Saturday, 9:00 AM  23 degrees F at the ferry dock, 22 on the back porch.  Wind SSW, calm with moderate gusts.  Humidity 80%, barometer 30.43" and rising.  Snow is predicted on Tuesday but today is beautiful but cold.
  Both quite common and yet a rarity of sorts, the dwarf Alberta spruce, Picea glauca variety albertiana conica. is a "sport," or genetic mutation, of the white spruce, Picea glauca, in the Pine Family, the Pinaceae.   Such mutations are often found  in the odd growths called witch's brooms, which can occur in all types of trees and other plants.  Witch's brooms can have many causes, such as insect attack, diseases, or chance genetic mutations in developing growth buds.  The chance genet mutations can often be reproduced by cuttings.
   The person high in the tree in the photo is harvesting cuttings to propagate the witch's broom to determine if it can be valuable commercially.  More than one such adventurer has fallen and become crippled, or lain and died in a remote forest harvesting cuttings from witch's brooms.  A plant hunter who is a really good shot with a high powered rifle can bring down cutting material from a tall tree without performing the hazardous climb.
   The dwarf Alberta spruce was found by chance in Alberta, Canada, by two curators from Harvard's Arnold Arboretum over a century ago and it has been a popular landscaping plant ever since its introduction.  The one pictured grows in the Ode herb garden.  They are cute accent plants when small, but despite their nomenclature, can outgrow their designated space over time.  They can also be very troublesome plants, prone to red spider mite infestations and other insect pests, and I have found them to be very subject to drouth and late-winter windburn.  At times our two have been so unsightly I have threatened to cut them down.
   But, they tell a good story, and in appreciation I have thus far spared the storytellers.