Red Spruce

(Picea rubens)

Red Spruce (Picea rubens)

Identifying Characters: The eastern distribution of Red Spruce, the quadrate needles, relatively short cones (1.5 to 2 inches long), and woody, brittle cone scales will usually identify this species.

Similar Species: Red Spruce is most likely to be confused with Black Spruce within their area of overlap. The cones of Red Spruce are usually longer than those of Black Spruce (1.5 to 2 inches versus 0.5 to 1 inch for Black Spruce) and the apical margin of the cone scales is evenly rounded, not notched as in Black Spruce. The cone scales of White Spruce are flexible, not brittle and woody. The cones of White Spruce are slightly longer and appear thinner and more elongate.

Measurements: Red spruce is a medium-size tree at maturity, reaching 12 to 24 in diameter and 60 to 75 feet in height in the Northeast, and up to 115 feet in the Appalachian Mountains.

Cones: Cones 1.5 to 2 inches long; cone scales brittle when mature with apical margin evenly rounded; cones fall soon after maturity.

Needles: Needles quadrate (four-sided), dark green, although usually tinged with yellow; needles 0.5 to 0.7 inches long.

Bark: Bark is gray to gray-brown, in older trees broken into irregular scales.

Native Range: The range of Red Spruce extends from the Maritime Provinces of Canada west to Maine, southern Quebec, and southeastern Ontario, and south into central New York, eastern Pennsylvania, northern New Jersey, and Massachusetts. It also grows south along the Appalachian Mountains in extreme western Maryland, and eastern West Virginia, and north and west in Virginia, western North Carolina, and eastern Tennessee. Discontinuous stands may also be found in Haliburton Township, in Algonquin Provincial Park, and near Sturgeon Falls in Nippising Township, and in the southwestern Parry Sound District in Ontario, Canada. (Silvics of North America. 1990. Agriculture Handbook 654.)

Habitat: Red Spruce occurs in well drained upland regions and mountain slopes sometimes forming the major component of the forests within its range.