Norway Spruce (Picea abies)

The Norway spruce is a variety of spruce tree that hails from Europe. It is also usually mentioned as the European spruce. This tree variety is one among the most extensively cultivated spruces, both inside and outside of its inhabitant range, and one among the most economically significant coniferous varieties in Europe. The drought-tolerant tree has an average to fast growth rate and grows well in full sun. The tree grows well in acidic soils, but they do not perform well in arid or lacking soils. At the adulthood, the Norway Spruce tree attains the pyramidal shape with its widespread branches.

Features

The Norway Spruce is a big, evergreen coniferous tree, attaining a height ranging from 115 feet to 180 feet, with the branches spread between 25 feet and 30 feet. The diameter of the trunk of the trunk of the tree ranges between 3 feet to 4.5 m. The tree has a growth rate of 3 feet per year for the initial 25 years of growth under superior conditions, but turns out to be slower once the tree attains a height of 66 feet. The hairless shoots of the tree appear orange-brown in color.

The leaves of the Norway Spruce tree appear dark green in color on all of their four sides with subtle stomata lines. The length of these needle-like leaves ranges from 12 mm to 24 mm and they are quadrangular in cross-section.

The cones of the Norway Spruce tree appear with the length ranging from 9 cm to 17 cm, with bluntly to piercingly triangular-sharp scale tips. They appear with reddish or green in color, after 7 months of pollination, they change their color to brown. The length of the black-colored seeds of the tree ranges from 4 mm to 5 mm, with a 15 mm pale brown-colored wing.

Uses

The wood of the Norway Spruce tree is used in the manufacture of paper and it is a rich resource of spruce beer. The tree was earlier used as a medicine to treat scurvy. The shoot tips of the tree are used in the conventional Austrian medicine externally to treat the respiratory tract, skin diseases, gastrointestinal tract and diseases and internally as tea or syrup.

The average lifespan of the Norway Spruce tree is about 100 years.