logosmall.JPG (9291 bytes)

Vascular Flora of the Southeastern United States
Hardin, Massey, Radford, Thieret, eds.

Copyright - James W. Hardin, Ph. D., 1998, 1999. All Rights Reserved.

4. PICEA Dietrich. SPRUCE


Evergreen, aromatic trees to 24 m tall, symmetrical excurrent habit or irregularly pyramidal; bark gray to reddish brown, thin, smooth, becoming scaly; twigs roughened by persistent pegs. Leaves narrowly linear, more or less square in cross-section, spirally arranged, often upcurving, each sessile on a peg (sterigma) with rounded decurrent base. Pollen cones ovoid or subglobose. Seed cones ovoid or oblong-cylindrical, pendulous from upper branches; scales longer than bracts, thin, rounded, entire or slightly erose, persisting on the cone axis.