Spruce

2024 Author: Jasmine Walkman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 08:29

Spruce / Picea / is a genus of coniferous trees of the Pinaceae family, including about 35 species. The tree looks like a pine and grows in the same places. It grows slowly until the age of 15, and the fastest between the ages of 40 and 60.

The spruce is a straight and slender tree. Its stem is up to 95 m high and up to 4 m thick. The bark of the young stems is smooth, gray-green, and sometimes becomes gray-brown and cracks. Spruce lives a long time, sometimes up to 1000 years. The roots of the spruce are located shallowly below the soil surface. Its crown resembles a pine, except that the spruce spreads its branches all the way to the ground, and in the case of the pine the lower branches dry up and are cut off by the wind.

There is only one species in Bulgaria, the common one spruce / Picea abies /, most often on the northern slopes of the mountains, as it requires constant soil and air humidity. It is a coniferous tree, up to 50 m high. The needles are quadrangular, 15 - 35 mm long, located densely along the entire circumference of the branches.

The generative organs of the tree are unisexual, monoecious. The cones are cylindrical, reaching a length of 15 cm and a width of 4 cm, the seed scales are obovate, wedge-shaped narrowed at the base. Apart from our country, this species is also widespread throughout Central and Northern Europe.

Types of spruce

An interesting species is the silver one spruce / Picea pungens /, which reaches 50 m in height and has a conical crown with a storey structure. The bark is gray-brown, and on older trees it cracks and darkens. The leaves are 2-3 cm long and are hard with a prickly end and almost square cross-section, spread in all directions along the branches. They are covered with a silver wax coating, which changes its saturation in different shapes and depending on the conditions. There are shapes that have such a rich silver coating that the trees look almost white. The cones are 5 - 10 cm long and are cylindrical and light brown. This species is found in North America, the Rocky Mountains, the mountains of Utah, Colorado, at an altitude of 2000 to 3200 m.

The Serbian spruce / Picea omorica / is a tree up to 40 m tall with a dense narrow conical crown pointed at the top. Its branches are very short, hanging at the bottom of the branch. The bark is dark brown and the young twigs are hairy. The leaves are short 10 - 20 mm, with a convex median nerve and dark green above and grayish below, which gives the crown a slightly silvery color. The cones are 3 - 6 cm, before ripening they are purple or magenta, and the ripe ones are brown. Serbian spruce is naturally distributed to a limited extent in southwestern Serbia and Bosnia.

Conical spruce or dwarf spruce / Picea glauca conica / is an evergreen small tree, reaching 2 m in height. This species originates from Canada.

Small spruce is very common in landscaping. Its needles are 1 - 1.5 cm long, delicate. It makes a perfectly conical and very dense crown and is a completely winter-hardy plant. It has silver, bluish and green shapes.

The Caucasian spruce / Picea orientalis / is a species of spruce from the Pinaceae family. Its leaves are up to 10 mm long with an almost square or slightly rhombic cross section, quite hard and shiny green, on the upper side of the branches adjacent to them. Young twigs are shiny and light brown, densely hairy with short hairs. The cones are brown with a length of 5 to 10 cm. The seed scales have a rounded and entire upper edge.

Composition of spruce

The bark of he snorted contains tannins, conditioner, etc. The wood contains a complicated mixture of various organic compounds, as well as araboxylouronide, which includes uronic acid and a residue of arabofuranose. The needles of the tree contain essential oil, which contains up to 12% bornyl acetate, 1-a-pinene, p-pinene and others.

The leaf twigs also contain a significant amount of essential oil, and the cones contain bornyl acetate and other esters. The seeds contain up to 33% rapidly drying fatty oil, which contains approximately 5.2% linolenic acid, about 15.7% α-linolenic acid, approximately 29.5% α-linolenic acid, approximately 23.6% p-linolenic acid and about 11.4% butyric acid. They also contain about 22% crude protein, about 12% nitrogen-free extracts and more.

Growing spruce

The ordinary spruce needs constant high humidity and rich, moderately moist soils. It is resistant to winter frosts, tolerates relatively well limestone in the soil. There are extremely spectacular decorative forms - short, weeping, spherical and conical. It can be planted in the yard as a Christmas tree.

Spruce is propagated by seeds. In mid-April, the seeds are dipped to a minimum so that they become almost red. Then they are placed in moist sand for 8-10 days until they begin to germinate. They are then sown in loose and moist soil in abundant but not direct light. Top with 0.5 cm of fine sand. Germinate 50 - 70% of all seeds. Seed germination is maintained for up to 10 years.

Collection and storage of spruce

The cones ripen in the autumn of the first year. They are harvested at the end of August - when the wings of the seeds begin to be seen behind the cone scales. The cones of the common spruce are harvested in January, the Serbian spruce in January and February, and the silver spruce in late August. If you collect the needles in the winter, choose the lightest ones. They are the youngest and freshest. The collected needles are washed well and scraped off the handle with a sharp knife. Then cut into small pieces. Spruce roots are sometimes collected for medicinal purposes.

Benefits of spruce

Folk medicine uses the young twigs of spruce, which are collected together with the buds, cut while still fresh and boiled with sugar. The resulting syrup is an effective remedy against cough and other inflammations of the respiratory organs, also against rickets, scurvy and others.

Extract of spruce needles in fresh condition is added to the water for bathing children, to refresh and for various eczema. The essential oil, which is obtained from the various organs of the herb, is widely used in medicine, perfumery and cosmetics.

The dry distillation of wood produces a number of important items for medicine and industry, such as resin, turpentine, rosin and others. Fatty oil obtained from spruce seeds is widely used in careless and lacquer production, and is also suitable for burning.

The wood is used not only for building materials, carpentry, etc., but also for the production of medical charcoal powder / Carbo activatus /, which is used as an absorbent and as an antidote for poisoning with alkaloids and phosphorus compounds. Tanning materials are obtained from the bark, which are used for tanning leather and for obtaining medical tar rosin, wood vinegar.

The aroma of burning dried coniferous twigs is considered a good means of cleaning the home from harmful influences. Few people know what a wonderful healing effect ordinary spruce cones have. The more they are in the home, the healthier and cleaner the air we breathe will be. It is good to get cones for the winter, but not by tearing them from the tree, but by gathering the fallen around it.

It is believed that if we hold a spruce cone between our palms, we will quickly get rid of the negative energy accumulated in our body. A very effective method after a bath is to touch an injured or sick part of the body with cones, as they relieve pain and superficial wounds heal faster. If we plant spruce in the garden, they will build a protective field that will protect from evil eyes and negative energy.

Folk medicine with spruce

According to our folk medicine, a decoction of the needles, twigs and cones of spruce strengthens immunity. Spruce baths are suitable for nervous disorders and fatigue. Infusion of cones is used for angina, pneumonia, asthma and for the prevention of acute diseases of the upper respiratory tract.

Our folk medicine offers the following recipe for a decoction with spruce tips: Wash and chop the tips (3 tablespoons) into small pieces. Boil 3 liters of water and boil for 10-15 minutes, then strain through a sieve and gauze. If desired, sweeten with honey.

Damage from spruce

Spruce decoction is not recommended for pregnant women.