Sitka Spruce
Picea sitchensis
A massive, salt-tolerant spruce of the fog-soaked coast, with stiff, sharply pointed needles. The largest spruce in the world and a defining tree of the coastal temperate rainforest. Young shoots, inner bark, and immature cones have all served as food or flavoring, and the shoot tips brew into a vitamin C-rich tea.
- Family
- Pinaceae
- Type
- tree
- Lifespan
- perennial
- Height
- 200–200 ft
- Spacing
- 20–40 ft apart
- Light
- sun, part shade, shade
- Soil moisture
- moist
- Soil pH
- acidic
- Bloom
- April, May
- Bloom colors
- yellow
- Wildlife value
- mammals, songbirds, larval host
- Caterpillar hosts
- ~150 butterfly & moth species
- Landscape uses
- specimen
- Native states
- AK, CA, OR, WA
Related native plants
More Picea species
- Red Spruce (Picea rubens)
- Engelmann Spruce (Picea engelmannii)
- White Spruce (Picea glauca)
- Colorado Blue Spruce (Picea pungens)