Spruce
A spruce is a tree of the genus Picea ( /paɪˈsiːə/), a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the Family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal (taiga) regions of the earth. Spruces are large trees, from 20–60 metres (66–200 ft) tall when mature, and can be distinguished by their whorled branches and conical form. The needles, or leaves, of spruce trees are attached singly to the branches in a spiral fashion, each needle on a small peg-like structure called a pulvinus. The needles are shed when 4–10 years old, leaving the branches rough with the retained pulvinus (an easy means of distinguishing them from other similar genera, where the branches are fairly smooth).
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Famous quotes containing the word spruce:
“The most primitive places left with us are the swamps, where the spruce still grows shaggy with usnea.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“And then we’ll sit
in the shadowy spruce and
pick the bones
of careless mice,
while the long moon drifts
toward Asia”
—John Haines (b. 1924)
“The canoe and yellow birch, beech, maple, and elm are Saxon and Norman, but the spruce and fir, and pines generally, are Indian.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)