Description
Red Spruce, also known as Yellow Spruce, is prized for its strong timber. It is also used for making paper, musical instruments, and lumber. Red Spruce used to be the main ingredient in chewing gum in the northeast in the late 1800 and early 1900s.
Red Spruce is a slow-growing tree. Specimens with a trunk 14-16″ in diameter have often been found to be 70 years old! And trunks 24″ in diameter have been known to be more than 350 years old! Needles of this tree are sharp-pointed, curved and about 1/2″. The cones are ovoid 1 1/4- 1 1/2″ long and light brown or a bit ruddy in color. These will be found clustered at the top of the tree and drop in late fall or remain in place for a year. Mature bark becomes flaky and grayish-brown with a reddish-brown underneath. Needles grow in bunches of two to five. Red Spruce can live 350 or more years.
This tree is like a canary of the forest – sensitive to air pollution and populations in areas with poor air quality are declining.
