White spruce

Leaves

Form

• Straight, stiff
• Unpleasantly pungent when crushed
• Tip pointed but not sharp

Length

• 15–22 mm

Colour

• Green to bluish-green
• Lines of white dots on all sides

Buds

Form

• Ovoid, blunt-pointed
• Non-resinous
• Scales tight-fitting, margins ragged, curled out
• Outer scales shorter than the bud

Length

• 6 mm

Twigs

Form

• Hairless
• Leaf cushions rounded, grooves open
• Twigs of seedlings may be hairy

Colour

• Shiny, light greenish-grey, often tinged with orange or purple

Seed cones (mature)

Form

• Slender, cylindrical
• Blunt-tipped
• Stalkless

Length

• 3–6 cm

Colour

• Scales light brown

Structure

• Scales thin, tough
• Flexible, close-fitting
• Outer margin rounded, smooth
• Mature open cones easily compressed but scales do not break

Timing

• Cones open in late summer
• Seeds released from later summer to spring

Seeds

Length

• Seed 2–4 mm
• Seed wing 4–8 mm

Bark

Form

• Smooth, thin when young
• Becoming scaly with age

Colour

• Light grey when young, becoming darker grey with age
• Newly exposed bark salmon pink, silvery

Wood

Uses

• Wood pulp, lumber
• Planted for landscape and reforestation

Size

Height

• To 25 m

Diameter

• To 60 cm, occasionally larger

Maximum age

• 200 years

Tree form

Forest-grown

Crown

• Broadly conical
• Ragged, irregular, densely foliated
• Spire-like in northern parts of its range
• Principal branches bushy, generally horizontal, sometimes sloping downward in the lower part of the crown
• Tips gradually upturned

Root system

• Shallow, with many tough, pliable, wide-spreading branch roots

Habitat

Site

• Grows on a variety of soils and under a wide range of climatic conditions
• In eastern Canada, invades abandoned farmland
• Often found at the arctic tree line

Light tolerance

• Shade-tolerant

Associated species

• Trembling aspen, white birch, black spruce, and balsam fir

Range

Throughout Canada except the Pacific Coast