The Friends of the Wildflower Garden, Inc.
Trees & Shrubs of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden
The oldest public wildflower garden in the United States
Common Name
White Spruce (Canadian Spruce, Skunk Spruce)
Scientific Name
Picea glauca (Moench) Voss
formerly Picea canadensis
Plant Family
Pine (Pinaceae)
Garden Location
Woodland
Prime Season
Early Spring flowering
White Spruce is an evergreen conifer with rows of branches that are upward pointing in the upper reaches and horizontal to slightly drooping on the lower trunk; a straight trunk, growing 40 to 100 feet in height. The largest known White Spruce in Minnesota is in Koochiching County, measuring 40 feet in height, 133 inches in circumference, 40 foot crown spread and scoring 269 points.
Bark is gray to brown, thin, smooth becoming scaly with age. Twigs are orangish-brown, sometimes paler, slender, without hair. Buds are orange-brown.
Leaves: The 3/4 inch needles are stiff with sharp points, 4-angled, as thick as wide (not flattened), single on all sides of the twig, but mainly on the upper side of the twig and attached with peg-like bases. Each has a single white stomatic band. The color is blue-green with the white stomatic band, and when crushed produce a skunk-like odor, hence the alternate common name of 'skunk spruce.'
Flowers: The tree is monoecious, that is, male and female flowers are separate. Male flowers are reddish at first but turn yellow when in the pollen stage. The female flowers are purple forming oblong-cylindric light brown cones, 1-1/2 to 2-1/2 inches long that hang from the upper branches. These are soft and flexible and have fan shaped scales with rounded smooth margins and mature in late summer.
Seeds form 2 to 3 months after pollination, are triangular and attached to the base of the scale fan. Trees can begin producing seed at 4 years of age. Seeds are dispersed by wind and are viable for only 1 to 2 years. Cones may remain on the tree for 1 to 2 years.
Habitat: White Spruce is a long-lived climax forest tree forming extensive stands. It is shallow rooted but may develop a taproot. Needles may appear to be grayish as they have a waxy coating.
Names: The genus name Picea is the classical Latin name for the 'Pine' but Linnaeus assigned it to Spruces. The species name glauca, is from the Greek and means 'gray' or 'bluish-green' referring to the leaf color. The author name for the plant description originally was ‘Moench’ who was Conrad Moench, (1744-1805), German botanist, Professor of Botany at Marburg, author of Methodus Plantas hirti botanici et agri Marburgensis, and who named the genus Echinacea. His work was amended by ‘Voss’, who is Andreas Voss (1857-1924) German botanist and authority on conifers.
Comparisons: Norway Spruce, Picea abies. Black Spruce, Picea mariana.
Above: A young White Spruce. The bark of a mature tree becomes scaly with age. Male flowers are red at first before elongating. (3rd photo)
Below: Male flowers are reddish at first (photo above) but turn yellow and elongate upward when in the pollen stage. They then wither and fall away.
Below: The female flowers first form purplish-red cone like structures which then turn green and then brown at maturity as seen below.
Below: The mature cones are oblong-cylindric, light brown, 1-1/2 to 2-1/2 inches long that hang from the upper branches. These are soft and flexible and have fan shaped scales with rounded smooth margins and mature in late summer. 3rd photo - seeds of White Spruce.
Below: The 3/4 inch needles are stiff with sharp points, 4-angled, as thick as wide (not flattened) (1st photo below), single on all sides of the twig, but mainly on the upper side of the twig and attached with peg-like bases (below 2nd photo) and the needles have a white stomatic band.
Notes: White Spruce is not indigenous to the Garden. Eloise Butler first introduced the tree in May 1909 with plants from the Park Board Nursery. She planted more in 1910 '11, and '15. At that time the tree was generally classified as Picea canadensis, which name is now merged into P. glauca. Martha Crone planted additional trees in 1933, '48, and '49. White Spruce is tree of the northern latitudes, found in all of Canada and in the US in the northern tier of states from Idaho eastward to New England, and on the east coast south to New Jersey. Within Minnesota it is found in the northern part of the state, south as far as Otter Tail, Morrison, and Anoka Counties and planted ornamentally in others.
Uses: White Spruce wood is straight-grained, light and generally harvested for general construction lumber and for pulpwood. The tree makes a good ornamental landscape tree and also shelter belts. The wood is also valuable for sounding boards in musical instruments.
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References: Plant characteristics are generally from sources 1A, 32, W2, W3, W7 & W8 plus others as specifically applied. Distribution principally from W1, W2 and 28C. Planting history generally from 1, 4 & 4a. Other sources by specific reference. See Reference List for details.
Identification booklet for most of the flowering forbs and small flowering shrubs of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden. Details Here.
©2015
Friends of the Wildflower Garden, Inc. Text and photos are by G. D. Bebeau unless otherwise credited. "www.friendsofeloisebutler.org"
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