Linda Gaudino, age 13, of Vancouver, Wash., for her question:
HOW MANY KINDS OF SPRUCE TREES ARE THERE?
There are about 40 different kinds of spruce trees that are native to the Northern Hemisphere. The spruce is a beautiful cone bearing evergreen tree that is in the pine family.
Some spruce trees grow beyond the Arctic Circle. In North America, they grow as far south as North Carolina and Arizona.
Spruces are more closely related to the firs than to other cone bearing trees. But spruces have cones that hang straight downward while fir trees have cones that stand straight up. Also, the scales on spruce cones remain on the cones while the scales on fir cones fall off when the cones become ripe.
Spruce foliage is also different from that of other cone bearing trees. Most spruce tree needles are four side and less than one inch long. Woody, peglike projections join the needles to the twig.
In the East you'll find the white, black and red spruces while the Sitka and Engelmann are the two most important commercial spruces in the West.
White and black spruces are named for the general color of the bark and foliage. These spruces are found between the Bering Straight in the North and Maine, New York and Michigan on the South. They grow to the West as far as British Columbia and Montana. The black spruce also grows in the high altitudes in Virginia.
The red spruce grows between Nova Scotia and North Carolina and as far west as Tennessee.
The Sitka spruce, giants that sometimes grow to be 300 feet tall, can be found on the Pacific Coast from Northern California to Alaska. The Engelmann grows from British Columbia to New Mexico.
White spruces grow to be about 150 feet tall while the black is a little shorter.
Most spruce trees are shaped like pyramids. In old trees, the lower branches may brush the ground.
The most important spruce in Europe is the Norway spruce. You'll find it planted as an ornamental in some parks and yards in eastern North America.
The so called Douglas spruce of Washington, Oregon and British Columbia belongs to a different genus although it is related to the spruces. It is more rightly the Douglas fir. It produces more lumber than any other tree in the world.
Spruce wood is widely used for wood pulp in papermaking. The timber is strong, light and flexible and is well suited for masts and spars of ships.
Spruce wood is also used to make boxes and the sounding boards for musical instruments such as pianos. Fine spruce wood is also used for interior finishing in houses.
Resin, tannin and turpentine are products of spruce bark.
Dyes have been made from turpentine, which is derived as a byproduct in papermaking.