Types of decorative Christmas trees. Spruce - in winter and summer ...

Botanical name:   european or ordinary spruce.

Homeland:   Europe.

Lighting:   moderate.

The soil:   moist, nutritious.

Watering:   moderate.

Max Height:   50 m

Average life expectancy:   250-300 years.

Landing:   seeds and layering.

European spruce (ordinary) - the most common coniferous tree in Europe. Its range is so vast that it does not affect only the North German Lowland and the British Isles. Under favorable conditions, a tree can live up to 400 years.

European spruce: view description

The height of the tree is 50 m with a trunk width of 1 m. It is a slender tree, the crown is thick, pyramidal. Branches - horizontal or drooping, lowered down the trunk. Boughs gather in whorls. In the presence of sufficient lighting, the lower tier of branches remains for a very long time. The bark in youth is smooth, brown.

By old age, it becomes scaly-rough, gray or brown. Shoots of yellow or brown shades. May be naked or covered with red hairs. The buds are light brown. The needles are quite tough, green.

The shape of the needles is oblate-tetrahedral, length is 1-3 cm. The needles are kept on the tree for about 7 years. Mature cones of European spruce have an oblong-cylindrical shape. Their length is 10-15 cm, width is 3-4 cm. Cones ripen in October, but seeds usually fall in January-April. The length of the seeds is 3-5 mm. The seed has a yellowish wing, which is easily separated from it. A tree blooms at the age of 25-30 years.

Spruce wood has a yellowish white color with a slight pinkish tint. It is characterized as soft, light, shiny. The root system is horizontal, superficial, due to which the tree freely turns out of the ground even with strong winds.

Of all species, common spruce (European) is the fastest growing. At a young age (up to 10 years), growth is small, but increases rapidly with age. Annual growth is 50 cm. From 100-110 years, it begins to decline and by 250 years the plant begins to dry out. In some cases, it can live up to 500 years.

To date, several decorative varieties of this species have been bred: weeping, compact, and pin-shaped. All of these varieties are often used in landscaping and landscaping. Common spruce is often found in hedges from roads and railways.

Growing ordinary spruce

Sandy, loamy, fertile, slightly moist soils are preferred. Tolerates short-term flooding, but does not tolerate long stagnation of water. Resistant to shading, but sufficient lighting is required to resume. Resistance to frost is caused by thin scales that protect the kidneys from frost. It tolerates a haircut, but suffers from polluted air, although it itself has phytoncidal, ionizing properties. Due to the superficial root system, the tree is afraid of windfalls.

Very often, seedlings can develop on a fallen trunk or a crumbling stump. This is explained by the fact that it is common for a plant to absorb nitrogen compounds. Mycorrhiza (a symbiosis of spruce roots and edible cap mushrooms) helps spruces to extract nutrients from the soil. It is mycorrhiza that explains the presence in the spruce forests of a large number of ceps.

Reproduction occurs by seeds or layering. Moreover, the lower branches of the tree root directly on the soil, which is rare for conifers. But it is better to propagate by cuttings and grafting, since during seed propagation there is a loss of characteristic decorative qualities.

Caring for European spruce

Novosadki are unstable to dry air and soil. Therefore, on hot days, they require daily watering at the rate of 10-12 liters per 1 plant. Sprinkling the crown is also desirable. After each irrigation, loosening of the soil in the near-stem circle, weeding of weeds and mulching with peat is necessary.

If spruce grows as a hedge, then it requires special formation. By trimming, you can achieve the effect of an impenetrable green wall. In other cases, diseased, dry, broken branches are removed from the trees in autumn and spring. And the main formation of a beautiful regular crown occurs naturally. However, with the simultaneous growth of 2 tops, one must be removed, cutting it at the base.

Only young Christmas trees need special preparation for the winter, except for frost, they require protection from direct sunlight that causes burns. Under young plants, the soil is necessarily mulched, and the needles are covered with spruce branches, non-woven material or kraft paper.

This coniferous tree is an excellent “shield” in a summer cottage, used as a fence. You can plant trees in the garden itself, but only if you are ready to regularly limit the growth of their root system, otherwise these trees will oppress other plants on the site.

Description of common spruce and its seeds

To get started, read the photo and description of the ordinary spruce 0 tall (up to 20-50 m) tree with a trunk over 1 m in diameter. A cone-shaped crown with drooping or spaced branches remains sharp throughout the entire period of life. The bark is brown, rough, fissured. Shoots are brown, red or reddish-yellow, naked or sparse. Kidneys 4–5 mm long, ovoid-conical in shape, light brown in color.

Pay attention to the photo - in ordinary spruce needles 10–25 mm long, 1–1.5 mm thick, tetrahedral, sharp, shiny, bright or dark green:

The needles can last about 6-7 years. Cones 10–15 cm long, 3–4 cm wide, initially light green or dark purple, mature light brown or reddish brown, shiny, with dentate scales convex along the edge. Ripen in October, open in the second half of winter. Seeds of spruce ordinary 2–5 mm long, equipped with a light brown wing, and which are sown in the second half of winter.

This tree can live from 250 to 500 years. When describing the ordinary spruce, it is always noted that for the first 10-15 years it grows very slowly - 50 cm per year, then the growth rate changes to a rapid one.

Origin of common spruce - Europe, in Russia distributed to the Urals, forms clean or mixed forests with birch, linden, maple, oak. The mountains rises to 2000 m above sea level.

Norway spruce grows in the forest zone of the European part of the continent in mixed or clean forests, being a species of local flora.

Norway spruce grows on any soil, even on marshy. Prefers the sun, but can grow in partial shade and even in the shade. It is precisely because of its ability to grow in the shade that any mixed forest gradually becomes spruce, since under the canopy of deciduous plants young fir-trees from seeds spilled out from the ripened cones of an adult tree easily grow, but young deciduous species usually die due to lack of light . In coniferous forests, nothing ever grows under trees, and virtually no one lives in these forests. There is silence in them.

The spruce has a superficial root system, and since the mighty crown, which easily reaches 20–60 m, has a large windage, a strong wind easily turns the spruce from the soil. When planting a spruce tree, pre-estimate the prevailing direction of the winds so that during a hurricane it does not tip over to your house and break it.

Norway spruce is used in the pulp and paper industry, for the manufacture of musical instruments, containers, sleepers, lumber. Bark goes to get tannins.

Types and varieties of common spruce (with photo)

Ordinary spruce has many garden forms:   weeping ’Virgata’, columnar ’Columnaris’, spherical ’Pumila’, dwarf ’Procumbens’, as well as shapes with different colors of needles: gray ’Glauca’, yellow ’Aurea’, motley white ’Argentea’.

All species and varieties of Norway spruce have a very heterogeneous appearance, which is explained by various types of branching. These types are inherited, the most decorative of them are distinguished into separate varieties and are widely cultivated. By branching types, the following varieties are distinguished: ridge — branches horizontal and hanging down; wrong comb; compact - branches are horizontal and densely covered with short-branched shoots; flat - branches are widely branched and located in a horizontal plane; brush-shaped - branches have short thick branches with small branches of a brush-shaped shape hanging from them. The most popular varieties are:

Acrocon (Asrozone), Aurea Magnifica (Golden Gorgeous - Aurea Magnifica), Berry (Barryi), Echiniformis (Spiny - Echiniformis).

Ordinary spruce also has a huge variety of dwarf varieties, most of which have a compact crown with hard dark green needles.

As you can see in the photo, there are varieties of ordinary spruce with spherical and hemispherical crown no more than 1.5 m high, as well as with creeping shoots ("Inversa", "Repens"):

The smallest varieties, not more than 50 cm in height: " Little gem», « Pumila», « Pygmaea».

Growing ordinary spruce: planting, care and reproduction

Growing ordinary spruce is possible from the Far North to the subtropics. Reproduction of ordinary spruce is carried out by seeds. Garden forms - cuttings and less commonly grafted. Varietal characters are preserved only with the vegetative method of reproduction. When processing summer cuttings with a 0.01% solution of indolylbutyric acid, the trees take root by 14%.

Spruce shade is hardy, but develops better with sufficient lighting. Suffer from air pollution, which primarily affects the life span of the needles. At a young age they can be quite finicky. They grow slowly, especially in the first years of life, do not like transplantation and cannot stand soil compaction as well as nearby groundwater. Trees are sensitive to early spring frosts.

For planting and successful care of ordinary spruce, the soil should have the following composition:   turf, leaf land, peat, sand, taken in a ratio of 2: 2: 1: 1. Drainage: a layer of broken brick and sand 15–20 cm.

Norway spruce prefers loamy and sandy loamy soils. Shelter for the winter is necessary only to some decorative forms and only at a young age.

Of course, an ordinary spruce from the forest is not suitable for a small garden, it is better to look in the nurseries for a bush form with a flat crown, reaching an adult height of no more than a meter, or even start a creeping Christmas tree.

Ordinary spruce grows well in Central Russia. These trees are adapted to the local climate, and therefore do not require special care. Spruce trees can grow on soils of different types, preferring loams. The main difficulty associated with their cultivation is maintaining the optimal level of soil moisture. Ordinary spruce do not like when the soil is swampy, so you need to loosen and cultivate the earth, to ensure proper drainage. This species is relatively shade tolerant, and the best location would be partial shade, proximity to larger trees or buildings. Since ordinary spruce trees are ubiquitous in the surrounding forests, it will not be difficult to collect germinating seeds or find a cuttings suitable for propagation. By vaccination ordinary spruce is not propagated, with the exception of decorative forms.

How to form an ordinary spruce and video of trimming trees

In order for the spruce trees to be magnificent from top to bottom, it is imperative to unscrew the top from some point. And the sooner you begin to do this, the thicker it will be.

How to form ordinary spruce in order to have beautiful trees in its area? In the spring, when the young and green shoots go, while the needles on it are still soft, hold the base of the shoot with your fingers on your left hand and simply twist it with your right hand. There will remain a feathery 2-3 cm high. This will be the annual growth of the Christmas tree. For spruce, this operation is harmless. As soon as you destroy the top, the nearest sleeping kidneys at the base of the broken sprout will immediately grow. One of these shoots will try to compensate for the top and begin to grow vertically, and again you will twist it. All attempts to eat to grow a new top, you will stop every spring, leaving only a small stump from the annual growth. Thus, the tiers of horizontal branches will be located close to each other, and the Christmas tree will become very dense, and most importantly, this simple, but annual reception will not allow the Christmas trees to reach out into the sky. In addition, the experience of gardeners shows that densely planted spruces (if they are not shortened) begin to lose lower branches. And over time, instead of a green fence, a colonnade grows from the bare trunks in the lower part of the trunk.

The video “Formation of ordinary spruce” shows how to unscrew the top:

But you should not trim the ends of the branches, because, as a rule, this leads to the drying out of the entire branch, and the trimmed ends are too noticeable. It’s better to pinch them. This is done like this: take in your left hand a handful of green "tails" that appeared at the ends of the branches in the spring, and with your right hand break off their tips. Of the parts of the “tails” remaining at the ends of the branches, the branches will go, which again will make the branches thicker.

If you cut down the top of an overgrown spruce, then the branch closest to the sawn top will try to take its place, rising to a vertical position. The trunk will turn out to be a curve.

Dwarf spruce unpretentious and extremely hardy. They prefer well-lit places and moderately moist soils rich in nutrients. The exception is quite capricious varieties of spruce gray, which need shelter for the winter and shading from the scorching spring sun. For the formation of a beautiful crown of spruce, annual cutting of the dominant and lateral shoots at the time of their growth is necessary.

Watch the video “Shearing ordinary spruce” to correctly perform this procedure:

The use of ordinary spruce as a hedge (with photo)

Norway spruce is used in groups, as a tapeworm, hedge, alley. More than 120 garden varieties of common spruce are known that can satisfy all the needs of amateur gardeners and landscape architects.

Here you can see the hedge of ordinary spruce in the garden:

Common spruce   - a large tree. It is better to plant the plant on the north side, outside the site, behind a ditch at the very edge of the road that passes by the site. In addition, such a "living fence" perfectly closes the garden from the north wind. If you plant spruce as a green fence, then they need to be planted at a distance of 80-100 cm.

You can, of course, plant a spruce on the site itself, but then you must necessarily limit its root system. It is necessary to outline some kind of site, and each year to chop off the roots with a shovel, trying to go beyond the allotted boundaries. Since the spruce root system is ate, you won’t have to dig deep, but it’s a tedious job anyway, and you can skip a couple of times, and it will quickly stretch its tentacle roots to all your plants. It is easier to do this: if you have an old concrete ring, for some reason not used in the construction of the well, you can dig it 90 cm - 1 m away. If there is no ring, you can dig a hole, make the formwork and fill in the concrete square a box without a bottom. You can also bury the slate, but the roots of the spruce will gradually destroy it. If you try to bury the iron, it will decay in 8-10 years, and the spruce will spread further. The space should be approximately a square of 90 × 90 cm or meter per meter. The soil that you dug up can be reintroduced, you do not need particularly fertile soil, you need the spruce to grow slowly in sparse soil. She will grow, do not worry. She is very hardy and also shade-hardy. Therefore, if you have 4 apple trees, then in the center between them you can plant a spruce, limiting its root system. It will be its smell, rather harsh, successfully protect your fruit trees from flying pests of apple trees, as the spruce smell will disorient them. It seems that they fly to the smell of their nurse, the apple tree, and then another suspicious smell mixes in. Fearing to leave their offspring on such an apple tree, pests, as a rule, fly by.

Spruce is a coniferous evergreen tree of the pine family. This is a mystery about her: "Winter and summer in one color."   A closer look will introduce you to these interesting trees, talk about where it grows and how it is used in the national economy.

Description

A Christmas tree is a slender tree that can grow up to 35 meters high.   The first 10 years it grows very slowly - a few cm per year, then the growth rate increases, but after 100-120 years it slows down again. Has a pyramidal (triangular) crown with a sharp tip. Branches are densely located throughout the trunk. It is often difficult to see behind spruce paws.

In a young tree, the bark is smooth gray-brown in color, in the old tree the bark becomes gray and exfoliates with thin plates. The needles are dark green and shiny, sharp and prickly.   Needles are much shorter than pine, have a length of up to 3 cm.

They hold firmly on the branches of 7-10 years. But in urban conditions with a strong smoke of the air, the life span of the needles is greatly reduced: it falls off after 3 years.

The root system of the spruce is located close to the surface, so a strong wind can tumble down the tree.

Spruce is a long-lived woman, she lives 250-300 years.

Where grows

She growing throughout the Northern Hemisphere.   It can be found in Central and Northern Europe. It is ubiquitous in Russia: in Siberia, the Urals, the Far East, the Caucasus, and the steppe zone. Also growing in China and Japan.

Total 50 species   oil. The most common: Siberian, European, Caucasian, Canadian, white, red, black.

The Christmas tree is the basis of taiga. It grows in mixed forests, well adjacent to, pine, oak, linden, aspen, hazel. It also forms pure spruce forests, which have a number of features:

• it is damp and dark here;
• the soil is completely covered with moss;
• under the spruce paws grow dense thickets of blueberries, lingonberries, oxalis, cuckoo flax.

Growth and reproduction conditions

To spruce grow well, she needs the following conditions:

• Shadow. This is a tree doesn't really like the sun   young Christmas trees often get sunburn in open places.
• Adequate hydration. Christmas tree does not tolerate drought.
• Temperate climate. The tree is cold-resistant, not afraid of frost   but it grows poorly in the southern regions, where the summers are too hot and long,
• The soil should not be too dense, moderately fertile.

Spruce is a monoecious plant. This means that on one tree male spikelets and female cones grow. Propagated by seeds,   germination of which is very good. Cones open in late November - early December, seeds fall out, they are picked up by the wind and spreads far in the vicinity.

In early spring, the seed awakens and begins to grow. The main condition for the sprouts to take root and begin to develop well is a warm spring, because they die during spring frosts.

Use in the national economy

Spruce plantations can often be seen in sanatoriums. Because their needles secrete volatile, cleansing and disinfecting air.   Also, spruce often becomes the basis of landscapes in personal plots.

From this tree make high-quality musical instruments. Paper, artificial silk, smokeless powder are made from soft wood. Get tar, tar, rosin, turpentine.

Fir cones are widely used in folk medicine. Healers believe that the tree is a donor tree, if you lean against it and stand for several minutes, it will give a person energy and strength.

Forest guest kids are waiting for the New Year.

How much joy she brings, filling the house with a special forest smell and pleasing the eye with her beauty!

If this message came in handy, I'm glad to see you

Spruce (Picea) -   genus of evergreen conifers. One of its main representatives- common spruce   (R.   abies ) -   familiar to us since childhood. Spruce trees are widespread in the Northern Hemisphere, and have long been widely used in landscape design. They are loved for their recognizable shape of the Christmas tree in the form of a clear cone. In an extensive list of conifer species used in green building, spruce is one of the leading places.

The ancient Roman name for the plant is supposedly derived from "pix" - resin. The genus includes about 50 species distributed in Northern Europe, Northeast and Central Asia, North America, Central and Western China. Representatives of the genus are monoecious, tall (over 50 m), slender, evergreen, long-living trees with a dense, narrowly or wide-conical crown, consisting of unclearly twisted branches, with stiff, prickly needles, rhombic in cross section, lasts 6-9 years . The needles are attached to the shoots on special outgrowths of the bark - leaf pads, clearly visible after its decay. Spruce shoots are very different from fir shoots by this morphological feature. Cones are oblong, at the ends of last year's shoots, mainly of the upper branches. Ripen in the first year. Seed is winged. Almost every species has a number of decorative forms.

Common spruce, or european   - Picea abies (L.) Karst. Homeland - Europe. Mountains of Western Europe, forest zone of the European part of Russia (to the Urals). Forms clear or mixed forests. It is protected in reserves.

Norway spruce is heterogeneous in appearance, which is due to various types of branching. These types are inherited, and the most decorative of them are distinguished, received certain names and are widely introduced into the culture.

By branch type, the following are distinguished: comb   - branches of the first order are horizontal, the second - thin, comb-shaped, hanging down; wrong comb   - branches of the second order are incorrectly combed; compact   - branches of the first order are relatively horizontal, medium length, densely covered with short-branched branches of the second order; flat   - branches of the first order horizontally widely branched; brush-like   - branches of the first order have short thick branches, with small branches hanging bristle-like from them.

In addition to these, decorative forms are most often used:

Landing Features: distance between plants - 2-3 m. Planting depth - 50-70 cm. Root neck - at ground level. In fertile soil, spruce trees form deeper roots. As a rule, the roots are located close to the surface of the soil. Fir trees grow slowly, especially in the first years of life. When transplanting fir trees, avoid overdrying the roots. Most species and forms of spruce can not stand trampling and soil compaction, as well as nearby groundwater!

Care: When using spruce for hedges, strong pruning is allowed, after which the plants thicken greatly. Usually, only dry and diseased branches are removed. Regular plucking of the dominant and shortening of the side shoots at the time of growth is recommended. They transplant better than other conifers, the main root of the spruce early ceases to grow, and the lateral roots form a superficially root system, so they are windy on shallow soils. When planting, 100-150 g of nitroammophos are added; later feeding is not necessary. Spruce trees are demanding on soil moisture, poorly tolerate its dryness. Watering young plants in a hot, dry summer is mandatory, it is carried out once a week for 10-12 liters per plant. Fir trees require deep drained soils, so loosening is necessary for young plantings, but not deep, by 5 - 7 cm. It is advisable to mulch peat with a layer of 5-6 cm, after overwintering, peat is not removed, but mixed with the ground. The central shoot of weeping spruce forms must be tied to a support.

Preparing for winter: shelter for the winter is necessary only for some decorative forms and only at a young age. To do this, it is enough to throw on the tree a light non-woven material that allows air to pass through. But here what must be done is to hide some plants from the spring sun, otherwise the trees will be “burnt” from the south side. After such burns, they ate poorly and for a long time recover, and sometimes die. To protect yourself from the sun, you need to throw lightweight non-woven material in 2 layers on the plants somewhere in February again or put dense shields on the south side.

Diseases and Pests: red and yellow gall aphids suck spruce needles in the spring, resulting in coniferous, pineapple-like galls forming on conifers. Affected branches die off. When they appear, spraying with INTA-VIR.

Dirty-white to blackish caterpillars of a nun’s butterfly, up to 5 cm long, eat up the needles completely. At the very first appearance, spraying with bitoxibacillin or decis, karate preparations.

Coniferous browning is caused by a mushroom, which primarily affects the lower branches of weakened trees, while yellow or brown patches appear on the needles. In this case, regular application of fertilizers containing magnesium, such as calimagnesia, is necessary; thinning crown for good ventilation. Chemicals are not used.

Spider mite and spruce leaflet. Spruce spider mite usually harms during a period of prolonged drought. It is necessary to spray with colloidal sulfur, dandelion or garlic infusions. In the latter case, the needles are braided with cobwebs, and caterpillars (larvae) that eat leaves are visible inside. Affected shoots must be repeatedly treated with a solution of liquid soap or removed.

Breeding: seeds. Seeds germinate in the year of sowing, and 2-3-month stratification accelerates germination and has a beneficial effect on the development of seedlings. Unstratified seeds are soaked before sowing for 24 hours in snowy or settled water.

The seeds of spruce ripen in late winter or early spring, when the snow did not have time to melt. If they are not collected in advance, then they fly off from the top of the trees. The wings on the side of the seed shine through, are golden in the sun. The wind drives them over the crust - so the spruce settles in nature. In place, the seeds do not germinate immediately, sometimes they can lie for 9-10 years, retaining germination.

Spruce seedlings - a whorl of cotyledons at the top of a stalk as thin as a thread. The height of the annual seedling is not more than 4 cm. In the following years, the Christmas tree grows faster. However, a ten-year tree does not rise above one and a half meters. But with age, the growth rate increases and the spruce catches up and even distills some trees and grows until the end of its life. Therefore, she always has a peak as sharp as a peak. It ends with a direct annual shoot. Under the fir-tree apex, several buds are laid, from which late spring shoots will grow next spring, and one vertical bud from the apical bud, again with a ring of lateral buds. So on the trunk every year a new whorl of branches appears. From the whorls, you can calculate the age of the tree, adding another 3-4 years to the sum, remembering that the seedling of spruce forms whorls only from the third or fourth year of life.

Seeds of spruce ripen in female cones. Female cones are often red and appear in spring at the ends of the shoots. A cloud of yellow pollen flies from male yellowish cones. There are so many of it that it settles around, staining everything yellow.

Young Christmas trees feel great under the canopy of other trees, such as birch or aspen. Trees protect tender needles and young shoots from spring frosts and the bright summer sun. But then the tree will grow up and displace all other breeds.

Large trees are best planted in winter with a frozen lump of land. This is available only to professionals.

Using: single landings, groups, alleys, massifs, hedges. Light brown cones up to 6-12 cm decorate the tree very much during fruiting.

Partners: successfully combined with fir, pine, birch, maples, ash, succulent-leaved and other shrubs.

Norway spruce is the most common conifer in the western sector of the forest zone of Eurasia. Simply put, this is our ordinary tree, perfectly familiar to everyone. But in the familiar, familiar, everyday, you can find new and unknown.

European spruce, or European

Ordinary spruce is also called European spruce. Although in Western and Central Europe, the tree grows only in the mountains. The most common is this spruce in Northern Europe, Belarus, in the north of Ukraine. And, of course, in the north of European Russia, where it forms significant forests.

In the east, closer to the Urals, and in the very north of the forest zone, ordinary spruce is replaced by a close species - Siberian spruce. The view is close, but still different - with shorter and prickly needles, smaller cones, lower height. And the ability to survive in harsher climates.

The view is different, but still close. Common and Siberian spruce cross, forming viable hybrids. They even talk about a special transitional form - Finnish spruce.

If you carefully consider the cones of ordinary and Siberian firs, you will notice differences that are considered species traits. The edge of the scales in Siberian spruce is rounded and smooth, and in ordinary - with small cloves, notches.

Spruce belongs to the pine family. In fact, despite the obvious differences, these trees have a lot in common. In addition to green needles, which lasts several years, ordinary spruce combines dioeciousness with pine - both male and female cones ripen on the same tree. The structure and origin of cones, the structure of pollen and seeds, the processes that occur during pollination and fertilization are also similar.

There are many differences. Unlike pine, spruce trees are able to grow tall and slender trees, regardless of whether they grow in a dense forest or in the open. The fact is that ordinary spruce grows mainly with its apical bud. It is she who gives the longest shoots - from 30 to 50 cm annually.

Moreover, spruce grows at its top all his life. True, provided - if the apical kidney is not damaged. Or the shoot carrying this kidney is for some reason not removed. In this case, one of the lateral kidneys takes over the apical function. But the tree will never grow tall and slim.

The top of the spruce is always crowned with a “crown” of buds: one apical and several lateral. In the spring they shoot. And a whorl is formed. Just like in ordinary pine. And the age of the young spruce is also easy to determine by counting the number of these whorls and adding 5 - 7 years. No whorls form on the tree during the first years of life.

Lateral branches also grow annually, but much less than the top. Moreover, lateral shoots grow on the side branch of the spruce every year - already relative to this branch itself. These are also whorls, but not complete - the branches do not depart in all directions, but close to one plane. A spruce branch forms, which we usually call a spruce paw.

The shoots of common spruce, unlike pine, are of only one type - elongated. Let me remind you that, in addition to annually increasing elongated shoots, there are also shortened ones, only a couple of millimeters long. A pair of pine needles grow on them. Together with the needles, these shoots fall off after 2 - 3 years, or a little more.

Spruce needles grow directly on an elongated shoot. Needles, much shorter than pine, dot the entire shoot, arranged in a spiral. Sits a needle on a leaf pad. When it falls, a sheet trace remains on the bark.

Spruce needles flattened tetrahedral, with a prickly top. The length of the needles is 1 - 2 cm. It keeps on the tree longer. Under natural conditions, the life span of the needles is up to 10 - 12 years. True, in trees growing under conditions of increased air pollution, pine conifers much earlier.

Common spruce, like other representatives of this genus, tolerates shading well. Therefore, even in a dense spruce forest, the crown of the tree remains highly developed. Only the lower branches dry out from a lack of light. The crown of spruce, growing in the open, is usually pyramidal. Branches grow on the trunk almost to the ground.

A developed crown provides the tree well with nutrients. After all, the more leaves (needles) on a tree, the more sugars are produced during photosynthesis. But such a crown can cause a tree and serious problems.

In winter, we have a lot of snow. Even birch leaves lacking leaves under its weight often bend, or even break. Ate ordinary snowfalls do not cause much trouble. Thin, but strong and flexible branches bend under the weight of snow. And dump it!

But strong winds with a large sailing crown often turn the whole tree. Contribute to this and the features of the root system of spruce. Only up to fifteen years, a root root grows in a tree. And then lateral roots actively occur in the upper soil layer. Such roots cannot hold a tall tree in strong winds. And the forest giants are crumbling.

European spruce lives up to 250 - 300 years. That's just to meet such trees in the forest is unlikely to succeed. Is it somewhere in the reserve. Most of the fir trees are cut down before the centenary.

Never chopped spruce leaves an unforgettable experience! I had to visit such a forest many years ago. It is in the north-west of the Vologda region, almost on the border with Karelia, in the upper reaches of the Andoma river. Associations ... fabulous. It seems that Baba Yaga is about to peek out from behind a nearby tree. Or Goblin.

Powerful columns of fir trees go up tens of meters. The diameter of the butt is more than a meter. Branches are hung with beards of a lichen grow asleep. Quiet in such a forest and gloomy. Soil, deadwood, including whole trunks of huge spruce trees that have fallen from old age or the wind, are all covered with a thick layer. Only blueberries grow from shrubs, and even then not everywhere.

Where lighter - near a forest stream, for example - some herbs appear. Sparkling white stars of the European weekly. And in places of close occurrence of groundwater, green mosses are replaced by swamp mosses.

On fresh stumps in the clearing under the forest road, which then reached these places, you can count tree rings, which the botanists of our expedition did not fail to do. They counted 250-300 rings.

According to the results of the expedition, in which I was then working, the Upper Andomsky State Wildlife Refuge was created. An array of native spruce trees was taken under protection. What is there now - I can’t say ...

Norway spruce is much more demanding than pine to soil conditions. It will not grow on dry sand or on a high bog. And she does not tolerate drought. Because already in the south of the forest zone is less common.

In winter, trees spend in a kind of "hibernation" when life processes slow down. Coniferous trees are no exception. The stomata on the needles are tightly closed - you need to save water. Roots cannot provide a tree with it in abundance, the roots practically do not absorb water in the cold soil.

However, at temperatures above -5 degrees in the needles, photosynthesis still begins. But such temperatures are not typical for our winters.

But spring comes, and everything begins to change rapidly. Even at the turn of the season, during the poetically called “M.P. Prishvin", "on dry sunny days, fir cones open, spilling out the seeds carried by the wind. In May, with the arrival of heat, the buds first swell and then the buds open, giving rise to new vegetative shoots.

View the spruce paws at this time. Large buds swelled at the ends of the branches, covered with pale yellow caps of soil scales. In some places, these scales have already moved apart, or even fallen. A tassel of light green needles is born from under them. This is a young escape.

Young needles differ from old ones not only in color. They are soft and not at all prickly. If the “brush” is torn off and chewed, a sour taste is felt. And no tarry taste and aroma.

Young shoots are growing rapidly. In May - early June, they still differ from the old in the color of their needles. But with the advent of this summer, shoot growth stops, the needles harden and acquire their usual properties.

Almost at the same time as the vegetative, generative buds also bloom. Of them appear altered shoots of common spruce - its female and male cones. Spruce "blooms". This happens almost simultaneously with the flowering of bird cherry.

Of course, biologists correct - conifers do not bloom, they do not have a flower. But still the similarities are great, especially when you consider that the bumps at this time look very spectacular.

A little more about the "flowering" of spruce is a separate article.

It is usually quite difficult to consider young cones of spruce, as they are located in the upper part of the crown. Unless lucky ... On the tops of last year's shoots appeared small yellow or reddish male cones (or male spikelets). In bags under the scales a huge amount of pollen matures.

The pollen grains of common spruce, like pine, have air sacs, due to which they specific gravity   small Pollen is carried away by the wind, covers the leaves of trees, grass. If it rains, yellow pollen is clearly visible in the puddles.

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