The Black Spruce has a very large native range over most of Canada, about half of Alaska, into New England and mostly around the Great La...Read Morekes and down into the mountains of Virginia. The name of 'mariana" refers to Maryland. Its needles are rigid but not prickly, about 0.3 to 0.5" long. It bears ovoid little cones 0.5 to 1.0" long that hang on the branches for many years. The inner bark is olive green when freshly exposed. It usually gets about 30 to 40 feet high, but can be taller up to about 80 feet, with a trunk usually about one foot in diameter, and it normally is of a narrow pyramidal habit. It grows best around bogs and swamps. I've seen a number of wild trees in the Tannersville Cranberry Bog in northeast Pennsylvania. Farther in the North it can grow on upland sites also. It can be grown in cultivation and there are several cultivars. Some native plant nurseries sell the mother species, but I've never seen any conventional nurseries sell it. The several cultivars are sometimes offered by rare plant or mail order nurseries.
The Black Spruce has a very large native range over most of Canada, about half of Alaska, into New England and mostly around the Great La...Read More
Twigs and buds are hairy, winter buds are sharply pointed. Needles are very short 1/4" to 1/8'.
It makes a tall,narrow pro...Read More