Black Hills Spruce (Picea glauca var)

Black Hills Spruce is a variety of spruce that hails from the northern temperate regions and boreal forests in North America. It is an ideal ornamental and garden tree. This tree variety is also called as Canadian spruce, cat spruce, skunk spruce, western white spruce, Porsild spruce and Alberta white spruce. This evergreen tree has a slow growth rate and grows well in full sun and in partial shade. The Black Hills Spruce tree is very adaptable to a variety of soils, such as acidic, damp, gravelly or filthy loam and fine clay soils. These drought tolerant trees attain a pyramidal shape when they are fully grown.

Features

A matured Black Hills Spruce tree is capable of attaining a height, ranging from 30 feet to 60 feet, with widespread branches that spread between 15 feet and 25 feet. The diameter of the trunk of the tree has a maximum diameter of 3.3 feet, with a skinny and scaly bark, peeling off in small rounded plates 5 cm to 10 cm across. Young trees appear with a narrow-conic top, whereas the matured ones have a cylindrical top. The hairless shoots of the tree are pale buff-brown in color.

The leaves of the Black Hills Spruce tree are single, rather rigid, pointed, and spirally set on the branches. The color of the leaves ranges from dark green to blue green. The length of these needle-like leaves ranges from 0.47 inches to 0.79 inches, with the rhombic cross-section.

The male flowers of the tree range in color from brown to pale red, whereas the female flowers range from greenish to purplish color.

The cones of the Black Hills Spruce tree are pendulous, slim, cylindrical in shape, with the length ranging from 1.2 inches to 2.8 inches and a breadth of 0.59 inches when closed, and a breadth of 0.98 inches when opened.

Uses

The Black Hills Spruce tree is famous for its wood, and it is used in the manufacturing of paper and construction. It is also used to make go boards as an alternate for the uncommon kayak wood.

The lifespan of the Black Hills Spruce tree ranges from 150 years to 350 years.