03/11/2022
Interesting Spruce Facts
Fact 1. In total, there are forty species of spruce in the world, and all of them naturally grow only in the Northern Hemisphere. These are one of the most common conifers on Earth, along with pines and larches. However, now they are already being grown in the Southern Hemisphere, and in suitable conditions, Christmas trees feel good.
Fact 2. Spruces growing at the optimum temperature and in favorable conditions grow to an impressive height. The record is as much as 96.7 meters! For comparison, this is approximately equal to the height of a building of 30 floors. And it's just a couple of tens of meters below the tallest sequoia on the planet.
Fact 3. All spruces are evergreens, they never drop a needle (which are modified leaves) due to frost or drought. If the needles on the tree suddenly began to dry out, it means that something is wrong with it. Under normal conditions, the Christmas tree sheds 5-15% of needles closer to the middle of autumn, but no more.
Fact 4. After an old spruce dies, new shoots can grow from its roots, which are genetically exact clones of it. An ancient spruce grows in Sweden, which is already about 9950 years old! True, the age of the tree growing right now is only a few hundred years. But after the death of another Christmas tree, this organism is reborn again and again, giving rise to new clones. Old Tikko is the oldest of the clone trees on the planet (from among the stand-alone ones; there is a clone poplar colony in the USA, which is already about 80,000 years old). Near the Old Tikko there are 20 more spruce-clones, whose age exceeds 8000 years.
Fact 5. Under certain conditions, spruce can take on a shrub form, and not a tree. This is called crooked forest, and it occurs where heavy snowfalls, strong winds and other extreme conditions are frequent, which force the trees to balance on the brink of survival.
Fact 6. The root system of spruce clings to the ground rather weakly, and these trees are afraid of hurricanes, which can easily knock them down. This happens due to the fact that the main taproot of the tree dies off after ten to fifteen years, and the secondary rhizomes, spreading to the sides, are slightly buried in the ground.
Fact 7. Cones grow only on fir trees that can be called adults, although the exact period of “growing up” depends on growing conditions. It ranges from 10 to 60 years, and the average life span of these trees is 250-300 years. But there are specimens whose age has already exceeded the 600-year mark.
Fact 8. Some types of spruces can interbreed with each other, and without human intervention. Thus, the two most common species in Russia, common and Siberian spruce trees, often give rise to hybrids, collectively known as “Finnish spruce”.
Fact 9. About 11% of all forests in Russia fall precisely on spruce forests, or dark coniferous spruce forests. They are distinguished by almost no undergrowth, since these trees usually grow densely, so densely that sunlight hardly reaches the ground. Accordingly, grasses and shrubs cannot grow under such a canopy. For the same reason, the lower branches of the Christmas trees die off.
Fact 10. Spruce needles are extremely rich in vitamin C. In young needles, its content is twice as high as in lemon! In the past, a drink like beer or fermented kvass, which was made from pine needles, was very popular among the Slavic peoples.
