Plantae > Tracheophyta > Pinopsida > Pinales > Pinaceae > Abies > Abies arctica

Abies arctica (Canadian spruce; White spruce; Alberta spruce)

Language: Chi; Cze; Dut; Fre; Ger; Hrv, Srp; Hun; Ita; Nor; Rus; Spa

Attributes

Air Quality Improvement [1]  None
Allergen Potential [1]  Medium-Low
Carbon Capture [1]  Low
Screening - Summer [2]  Dense
Screening - Winter [2]  Dense
Shade Percentage [1]  91 %
Temperature Reduction [1]  Medium-Low
Wind Reduction [1]  Medium
Bloom Period [2]  Late Spring
Drought Tolerance [2]  High
Edible [3]  May be edible. See the Plants For A Future link below for details.
Fire Tolerance [2]  Low
Flower Type [3]  Monoecious
Frost Free Days [2]  60 days
Fruit/Seed Abundance [2]  Low
Fruit/Seed Begin [2]  Summer
Fruit/Seed End [2]  Summer
Growth Form [2]  Single Stem
Growth Period [2]  Summer
Growth Rate [2]  Slow
Janka Hardness [4]  480 lbf (218 kgf) Very Soft
Leaf Type [3]  Evergreen
Lifespan [2]  Perennial
Pollinators [3]  Wind
Propagation [2]  Bare Root, Container, Cutting, Seed
Root Depth [2]  30 inches (76 cm)
Scent [3]  The crushed leaves are quite aromatic. Some people find the smell distasteful saying that it is like skunks, whilst others say it has a pleasant smell like blackcurrants or mouldy grapefruit.
Seed Spread Rate [2]  Slow
Seed Vigor [2]  Low
Seeds Per [2]  186400 / lb (410941 / kg)
Shape/Orientation [2]  Conical
Specific Gravity [5]  0.4
Structure [3]  Tree
Usage [3]  A fairly wind resistant tree, it can be grown as part of a shelterbelt planting; The cultivar 'Denstat' has been recommended; The leaves have been burnt to repel insects; Various native North American Indian tribes made a string from the long roots of this species and used it to stitch the bark of their canoes and to make baskets etc; The rotten, dried, finely powdered wood has been used as a baby powder and as a treatment for skin rashes; The bark is a source of tannin; A yellow-brown dye can be obtained from the rotten wood; The pitch obtained from the trunk can be used as a waterproofing sealant in canoes; Wood - straight-grained, resilient, light, soft, not strong. Used for construction and as a source of pulp for paper making; The resonance of the wood, and its capacity to transmit vibrations, make it an ideal wood for guitars, violins, piano soundboards etc;
Vegetative Spread Rate [2]  Slow
Flower Color [2]  Yellow
Foliage Color [2]  Green
Fruit Color [2]  Brown
Height [3]  49 feet (15 m)
Width [3]  16.4 feet (5 m)
Hardiness Zone Minimum [1]  USDA Zone: 2 Low Temperature: -50 F° (-45.6 C°) → -40 F° (-40 C°)
Hardiness Zone Maximum [1]  USDA Zone: 6 Low Temperature: -10 F° (-23.3 C°) → 0 F° (-17.8 C°)
Light Preference [2]  Mixed Sun/Shade
Soil Acidity [2]  Neutral
Soil Fertility [2]  Very Rich
Water Use [1]  Moderate
View Plants For A Future Record : Abies arctica

Protected Areas

Ecosystems

Emblem of

Manitoba
South Dakota

Predators

Consumers

Parasitized by 
Chrysobothris pusilla[10]
Chrysomyxa abietis[10]

External References

USDA Plant Profile

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1i-Tree Species v. 4.0, developed by the USDA Forest Service's Northern Research Station and SUNY-ESF using the Horticopia, Inc. plant database.
♦ 2USDA Plants Database, U. S. Department of Agriculture
♦ 3Plants For A Future licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
♦ 4Wood Janka Hardness Scale/Chart J W Morlan's Unique Wood Gifts
♦ 5Forest Inventory and Analysis DB version 5.1, May 4, 2013, U.S. Forest Service
♦ 6HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants Gaden S. Robinson, Phillip R. Ackery, Ian J. Kitching, George W. Beccaloni AND Luis M. Hernández
♦ 7Biological Records Centre Database of Insects and their Food Plants
♦ 8Making The Forest And Tundra Wildlife Connection
♦ 9Ben-Dov, Y., Miller, D.R. & Gibson, G.A.P. ScaleNet 4 November 2009
♦ 10Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0