Siberian Spruce - Description and Uses

Description and Uses

It is a medium-sized evergreen tree growing to 15–35 m tall, and with a trunk diameter of up to 1.5 m, and a conical crown with drooping branchlets. The shoots are orange-brown, with variably scattered to dense pubescence. The leaves are needle-like, 1–2 cm long, rhombic in cross-section, shiny green to grayish-green with inconspicuous stomatal lines; the leaves subtending a bud are distinctively angled out at a greater angle than the rest of the leaves (a character shared by only two or three other spruces). The cones are cylindric-conic, 5–10 cm long and 1.5–2 cm broad, green or purple, maturing glossy brown 4–6 months after pollination, and have stiff, smoothly rounded scales.

It is an important timber tree in Russia, the wood being used for general construction and paper making. The leaves are used to make spruce beer.

See also List of Lepidoptera that feed on spruces

Siberian Spruce cone scales are used as food by the caterpillars of the tortrix moth Cydia illutana.