Picea sitchensis - Sitka Spruce

Family: Pinaceae - Pine ^[E-flora]

• Habitat / Range "Moist to mesic slopes and river terraces in the lowland and montane zones; common in extreme W BC; N to SE AK and S to N CA."^{[IFBC-E-flora]}
• Origin Status: Native ^[E-flora]
• General: "Tall tree, up to 90 m tall; bark greyish-brown to purplish, scaly, thin; young twigs glabrous; main branches of tree noticably long and horizontal with drooping branchlets." ^{[IFBC-E-flora]}
• "Sitka spruce needles are stiff and prickly to the touch and about 1 inch (2.5 cm) long. They differ from needles of other Northwest spruces in being flattened so they do not readily roll between one's fingers." ^[nwtrees]

Ecological Indicator Information

"A shade-intolerant, submontane to montane, Pacific North American evergreen conifer. Occurs in hypermaritime to maritime cool mesothermal climates on nitrogen-rich soils. Avoids moisture-deficient and nutrient-deficient soils. Its occurrence increases with increasing latitude and precipitation and decreases with increasing elevation and continentality. Forms pure, open-canopy stands along the outer coast on sites affected by ocean spray and brackish water, and in advanced stages of primary succession on floodplains. Usually associated with black cottonwood, western hemlock, or western redcedar. Most productive on fresh and moist, nutrient-very rich soils within very wet cool mesothermal climates. Characteristic of hypermaritime mesothermal forests." ^{[IPBC-E-flora]}

Edible Uses

• Buds: "Raw or cooked. Used as a flavouring[172]." ^[PFAF]
• Immature Female Cones: "Immature female cones - cooked. The central portion, when roasted, is sweet and syrupy[172]." ^[PFAF]
• Seed - "Raw[172]. It is rich in fats and has a pleasant slightly resinous flavour but is too small and fiddly to be worthwhile unless you are desperate[172, K]." ^[PFAF]
• Young Shoots: "Raw[118, 256]." ^[PFAF] Young shoots eaten raw.^{[Turner, Kuhnlein]}
• Tea: "A refreshing tea, rich in vitamin C, can be made from the young shoot tips[172]." ^[PFAF][ARA]
• Inner Bark; "Raw or cooked[256]. It can be dried, ground into a powder and then used as a thickener in soups etc or added to cereals when making bread[172]. The inner bark was usually harvested in the spring, though it was also sometimes taken in the summer[256]. An emergency food, it is only used when all else fails." ^[PFAF]
• Gum: "A gum obtained from the bark is hardened in cold water and then used for chewing[118, 177, 256]. It should be aged for 3 days or more before using it. The best gum is obtained from the southern side of the tree." ^[PFAF] "Hardened spruce pitch was used as chewing gum (Cranmer, 1969)."^{[Turner&Bell]}

Other Uses

• Forage: "Succulent new shoots on Sitka spruce saplings are a favorite food of elk and Colum- bian black-tailed deer" ^[nwtrees]
• Root: "The tough and flexible root is used in basket making and as a string[118, 229]. The roots were burnt over an open fire to remove the bark, then they were dried and split to make hats, ropes etc[257]. The main body material of baskets was made from the roots. These were cut into lengths 75 - 90cm long and 12 - 25mm in diameter. Whilst still full of sap and soft, these were split into broad flat bands and these in turn were sub-divided by knife and teeth until the desired size was obtained - a little larger than coarse thread, about like small twine. The vertical rods were made of hazel (Corylus spp) and the overlay was bear grass (Xerophyllum tenax)[257]. The roots were used by several native North American Indian tribes to make tightly woven baskets that would hold water[226]. The limbs and roots can be pounded, shredded and used to make ropes[257]." ^[PFAF] "The roots were carefully pulled out from sandy ground in the early summer, briefly 'cooked' in the fire to prevent them from turning brown, then peeled, split and bundled for later use. " ^[PCBC]
• Pitch: "It is obtained from the tree and is used for caulking boats, waterproofing boxes etc[118, 257]. The rendered pitch has been used as a glue and can be melted then used as a protective varnish-like coat on wood[257]." ^[PFAF]
• Wood
  
• "Strong according to some reports[171, 229], not strong according to others[1, 11, 46]. The quality of the wood for aircraft construction is unsurpassed, it is remarkably strong yet light and its resistance - weight ratio is among the highest[226]. The wood is elastic, soft, light, straight grained. Equal in quality to P. abies but more quickly produced, the wood is used for shipbuilding, construction, packing cases, doors, posts etc[1, 11, 46, 226]. The wood is also valued for making musical instruments[226] and is widely used in the pulp industry to make paper[171]. The wood is a good fuel, knotted bits of wood would keep the fire burning all night[257]." ^[PFAF]
• "The tough, pliable wood was used to make digging sticks and slat armour, worn by Kwakiutl warriors for protection (Boas, 1935}. Spruce knots were steamed and shaped into halibut hooks (Ravenhill, 1938). The strong, flexible roots were particularly useful. They were woven into hats, mats, baskets, fishnets, and ropes, and were even used for "sewing" wood. They were also used as string to tie nets, hooks, and harpoons together. They were dug by the women in summer, coiled and tied. In preparation for use, they were held over a fire until the bark was burnt black, then pulled through a p a i r o f pine tongs (Pinus contorta) to remove the bark and to dry out the wood. Then they were split into quarters and pulled over a knife blade until they were completely flexible (Boas, 1921; Cranmer, 1969). Sometimes they were woven with red cedar bark (King, 1972). Porpoise-hunting canoes were greased with spruce-scented tallow, probably to mask any human scent which might scare away game (Boas, 1909)." ^{[Turner&Bell]}
• "Sitka spruce is highly resonant, and select- grade logs are of great value for musical instru- ments. Appropriately, Sitka spruce wood is used for the sounding boards that are mounted like billboards at strategic points along narrow navigation channels, which are themselves often lined with spruce trees. Boat captains determine their location in fog or darkness in hazard-strewn passages by the spruce sounding board's echo in response to blasts from the vessel's horn." ^[nwtrees]

Medicinal Uses

"Sitka spruce was widely employed medicinally by several native North American Indian tribes who used it especially for its antiseptic and pectoral qualities in the treatment of lung complaints, wounds, sores etc[257]. It is little, if at all, used in modern herbalism." ^[PFAF]

• Bark
  
• The inner bark is laxative[256, 257]. It has been chewed in the treatment of throat problems, coughs and colds[257]." ^[PFAF]
  "A decoction of the bark has been used as a steam bath in the treatment of back aches[257]." ^[PFAF]
• Cones
  
• "A decoction of the cones has been taken in the treatment of pain[257]. The cones have also been used in steam baths to treat rheumatism[257]." ^[PFAF]
• Resin
  
• "The resin is antiseptic and diuretic [257]. A decoction has been used in the treatment of gonorrhoea[257]. A poultice of the resin has been used as a rub on rheumatic joints[257]. Combined with Indian Hellebore roots (Veratrum viride), it has been used as a poultice on rheumatic joints[257]. The resin has also been used as a dressing or poultice on cuts, broken skin, boils, wounds, infections and suppurating sores[257]. The resin has been chewed as a breath freshener and as a treatment for TB[257]." ^[PFAF]
• "The pitch was put on a clean cloth and used as a poultice for boils, swellings, cuts, and abrasions. For a cough it was taken with oulachen grease every morning (Brown, 1969; Cranmer, 1969; Johnson, 1969). It was used as an adhesive for cedar bark wound dressings (King, 1972)."^{[Turner&Bell]}
• Roots
  
• "A decoction of the roots has been used in the treatment of diarrhoea[257]." ^[PFAF]
• Spruce root bark was used to heal kidney swellings (see under Charnaecyparis). Spruce roots were boiled with other plants for a diarrhoea medicine (see under Blechnum). ^{[Turner&Bell]}
• Gum
  
• "The gum from new shoots and small branches has been placed in the eyes as a treatment for snow blindness[257]." ^[PFAF]
• Branch Tips & Bark
  
• "A decoction has been used in the treatment of rheumatism, stomach pains, constipation and gonorrhoea[257]." ^[PFAF]
• Headache: If a person had a headache, his head would be struck with four spruce branches until it bled; then the headache would go away (Boas, 1966).^{[Turner&Bell]}

First Nations Usage:

"An extract from spruce buds was taken for coughs and colds (Willey, 1969)."^{[Turner&Bell]}

"The tips of spruce branches were sacred to the Kwakiutl. They were used to make the beds and houses of shamans and initiates (Boas, 1966). They were rubbed on canoes to purify them, and to cleanse a person contaminated with menstrual blood 1~ (Boas, 1935). Spruce branches placed around the house of a sick person were thought to prevent anything unclean from entering the house; the sharp needles would drive it away {Boas, 1966)." ^{[Turner&Bell]}

"The strong pliable roots were extremely valuable on the west coast for making hats, baskets, and ropes, and for "sewing" wood as in box-making (Boas, 1935; Drucker, 1951; Densmore, 1939). Spruce gum, where found, was used for chewing, for cementing tools such as harpoons, and for a number of medicinal purposes (Gunther, 1945; Drucker, 1951)."^{[Turner&Bell]}

"Straight young trees were traditionally used as splits for roasting salmon because they are neutral in flavor. Straight sticks of appropriate length were split part way, then salmon (or other fish) split and held open with smaller sticks were inserted in the split which was then tied closed with thong or strips of kelp (Nereocystis luetkeana (Mertens) Postels & Ruprecht. One sharpened end of the split was then thrust in the ground in order to position the fish for proper roasting over the cooking fire." ^{[Norton KaigHada]}

Spruce was also used as firewood both for its heating properties and because the smoke did not adversely flavor drying foods. The gum was chewed for pleasure and because it was thought to whiten the teeth." ^{[Norton KaigHada]}

Phytochemicals

• Bark (contains 11-37% tannin) [ARA]

Cultivation & Propagation

"NOTES: Sitka Spruce is a record-setter: the world's largest and tallest spruce (recorded at 317' tall, diameter to 18^1/2'); one of the largest of all trees; and among the fastest-growers, able to reach 200' in 100 years. Seedlings of this tree often sprout on top offallen trees called nurse logs; eventually the nurse log rots away, leaving a hollow beneath the Sitka Spruce, which perches on stiltlike roots. Old trees are sometimes topped with multiple crown leaders if lightning or wind has shattered the original one." [nwfgtrees]

Pice and Spruce Adelgids

"This very small family consists of small, aphidlike insects. The wingless females and nymphs are often covered with a cottony, waxy coating. They are confined to conifers. feeding on twigs or needles or inside the galls they form. Most species alternate between two different species of conifers but form galls only on the primary host tree. .... Adelgids have spread worldwide as forest and ornamental plant pests." ^{[Haggard IOTP]}

Fungal Host Sp.

Hypogymnia heterophylla - "Range: BC to Cal, seldom more than a few km inland from the ocean. Substrate: Bark and wood, most often collected from Pinus contorta or Picea sitchensis, but occurring on hardwoods as well. ... In its typical form, H. heterophylla is readily identified in the field once the slim perpendicular side lobes are recognized. Specimens with few such side lobes will require a P test to separate them from H. inactiva (which is P-). H. imshaugiii is another common species with erect lobes, but it has white lobe interiors and is not usually found near the coast. " ^{[McCune Macrolichens]}

Picea Sp. - Pine

"34 species: northern hemisphere. Etymology: (Latin: pitch) Note: Trunks, especially of Picea sitchensis, more flared or buttressed at base than other California conifers." ^[Jepson]

References

• [E-flora] Picea sitchensis, http://linnet.geog.ubc.ca/Atlas/Atlas.aspx?sciname=Picea%20sitchensis [Accessed: 1/13/2015]
  
• [Jepson] J. Robert Haller, Nancy J. Vivrette, & James R. Griffin 2012, Picea, in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=10028, accessed on February 18, 2018.
  
• [PFAF] Picea sitchensis, http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Picea+sitchensis, Accessed Jan 13, 2015