Picea mariana - Common Bonsai,Conifer - Black Spruce Page

Picea mariana, commonly known as Black Spruce, is a species of spruce native to northern North America. Its natural range extends from Newfoundland to Alaska and south to northern New York, Minnesota, and central British Columbia. This coniferous tree prefers cold climates and is commonly found in the taiga or boreal forest. Black Spruce has blue-green foliage and pinkish, purplish-gray, flaky bark. It is a slow-growing, small upright evergreen tree that has a narrow, pointed crown of short, compact, drooping branches with upturned tips. Its cones are spindle-shaped to nearly round, dark purple, ripening red-brown, and produced in dense clusters in the upper crown. Black Spruce is used in pulpwood production and is increasingly being used for making cross-laminated timber. It is also the provincial tree of Newfoundland and Labrador. The pitch obtained from the trunk of Black Spruce has been used as a sealing material on the hulls of canoes. In cultivation, there are numerous cultivars available, including the dwarf form 'Nana', which has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.