Red Spruce
Picea rubens
Red spruce is the fragrant spruce of cool Appalachian highlands and northern forests, shade-tolerant when young and slow to mature. A signature tree of high-elevation spruce-fir habitat. Like other spruces, young shoots and inner bark have served as emergency food, and the shoot tips brew into a vitamin C-rich tea.
- Family
- Pinaceae
- Type
- tree
- Lifespan
- perennial
- Height
- 110–110 ft
- Spacing
- 10–18 ft apart
- Light
- sun, shade
- Soil moisture
- dry, moist
- Soil pH
- acidic
- Bloom
- April
- Bloom colors
- red, yellow
- Wildlife value
- butterflies, mammals, songbirds, larval host
- Caterpillar hosts
- ~150 butterfly & moth species
- Landscape uses
- border, hedge or screen, naturalizing
- Native states
- CT, MA, MD, ME, NC, NH, NJ, NY, PA, TN, VA, VT, WV
Related native plants
More Picea species
- Sitka Spruce (Picea sitchensis)
- Engelmann Spruce (Picea engelmannii)
- White Spruce (Picea glauca)
- Colorado Blue Spruce (Picea pungens)