The Spruce Fight

Picea

Identification Information

Date: Sunday, June 13, 2021

Time: 5:20 p.m.

Location:  Hunsicker’s Grove (9350 Longswamp Road, Mertztown, PA 19539)

Habitat:  Temperate Mixed Forest, dominated by Hickory-Oak

Weather conditions:  75 degrees Fahrenheit, slightly humid, cloudy skies 

This tree started another argument.  We never resolved it.  I am declaring a genus and arguing for a species.  Don't tell him... he disagrees.  I know it.  He said that it can't be spruce because spruce has a particular smell.  We scratched the bark and sniffed, and he said that the smell was wrong.  I'm not sure I trust his smell memory from twenty years ago.  

The tree was a good 50 feet high with a trunk diameter of about a foot and a half.  It still stood in the shade of giant deciduous trees around it.  Spruces, like many other evergreens, are shade-tolerant.  The structure of the entire tree and branch location looks more like a Black Spruce than Red which usually are more conical.

Red spruce vs black spruce: Identification. (n.d.). Bplant.org. Retrieved June 15, 2021, from 

     https://bplant.org/compare/8091-8176

The first part of my argument is the bark.  The scaly texture is typical of spruce.  The dark color (given the age of the tree) is gray-brown, pointing to Red Spruce.  I didn't want to peel any outside bark off to see the color on the inside because the tree had already been through a lot.  Poor thing was riddled with holes from woodpecker feedings. 

Finally, look at the needles... the formation is either Spruce or Hemlock: a single needle coming out of each "pore," dense.  But the individual shape of each needle is Spruce, not Hemlock: the needles are more rounded.  Unfortunately, we did not even think to get all the dirt off directly around the stem, so I can't see if the needles have a tiny petiole or come out of the stem directly on a woody "peg."  They aren't bluish enough to be considered a Black Spruce.

(Brockman, 1986, p. 38)

So here is the big kicker... Red Spruce don't really grow in Southeastern Pennsylvania.  It is still possible that this is a Red Spruce considering that the owner of this park rehabilitated it from a quarry and planted trees from throughout the greater region.  So... Red Spruce... I think.  ?