Picea mariana, the black spruce, is a North American species of spruce tree in the pine family. It is widespread across Canada, found in all 10 provinces and all 3 territories. It is the official tree of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador and is that province's most numerous tree. The range of the black spruce extends into northern parts of the United States: in Alaska, the Great Lakes region, and the upper Northeast. It is a frequent part of the biome known as taiga or boreal forest.
Picea mariana
Needles and young cones
Black spruce taiga, Copper River, Alaska
Boggy taiga habitat
A spruce is a tree of the genus Picea, a genus of about 40 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal (taiga) regions of the Earth. Picea is the sole genus in the subfamily Piceoideae. Spruces are large trees, from about 20 to 60 m tall when mature, and have whorled branches and conical form.
Spruce
The peg-like base of the needles, or pulvinus, in Norway spruce (Picea abies)
Pulvini remain after the needles fall (white spruce, Picea glauca)
Manually decorticated trunk of a spruce as protection against bark beetles