BLACK SPRUCE; A TREE OF THE FAR NORTH

BLACK SPRUCE, ABOUT EIGHT FEET TALL...

...SMALL, DOWNWARD HANGING CONES...

SHORT (1/4" to1/2" LONG),  DARK GREEN TO BLUISH NEEDLES

 Tuesday,  9:00 AM.  38 degrees F at the ferry dock, 40 on the back porch.  Wind SSW, calm with light to moderate gusts.  The sky is mostly clear, with some haze in the east.  The humidity is 85% and the barometer 29.75" and falling, presaging rain on Thursday.  It is another nice day.
   Black spruce, Picea mariana, in the Pine Family (Pinaceae), is a tree of the far north, growing from the Canadian Tundra to the Great Lakes states and south at elevation in the eastern mountains.  It is a slow growing, relatively short species (30'-40'), often stunted in nature.  In its southern range it inhabits cold bogs; farther north, it can occupy drier sites.
   This is probably not a practical landscape tree south of the Lake States, although I understand there are some cultivars that are beautiful and take some southern heat.  I think black spruce very useful and good looking when used in Northern Wisconsin, in conjunction with other native species.  In the far north, black spruce grows in association with white spruce, white pine, balsam fir, paper birch and aspen.
   Black spruce is available from large northern wholesale nurseries that do their own propagating.  The species does need full sun, so black spruce is most appropriate for planting in sunny, cold, moist or even wet, locations.