#Picea

[jillraggett]

Plant of the Day

Sunday 26 January 2025

A slowing growing conifer Picea breweriana (Brewer's weeping spruce, Brewer's spruce) thrives in a moist but well-drained acidic soil and with shelter from cold drying winds. The major feature of this tree are the drooping curtains of dark green foliage.

Jill Raggett

[foliorumviridis]

[floralfumofridays]

Floral Fumo Friday of the Week: Norway Spruce (Picea abies)

Yuuka continued her travels to solve the incident. At the end of the penultimate season, there was an intense feeling of unique fear and uncertainty within Gensokyo that was felt by all youkai, including Yuuka. She noticed a few drunken youkai laying around the foot of the Mountain. She thought that maybe she could scare the drunkards when they least expected it. Yuuka approached one of the drunkards, as she gently smiled and politely greeted them. Her smile terrified the youkai, who then screamed, "Vampire!" Yuuka looked feintly confused, "Hm? I am nothing like those little birds...." her smile "I'm just here for some stress relief is all. Things feel quite bleak in this world right now, don't you think?"

The area was now clear of other youkai. Yuuka could see many cones scattered across the empty ground and collected them. She eventually felt exhausted from trying to solve the incident and decided to take a quick nap beside a giant spruce tree. When she slowly closed her eyes, she had thought about something that confused her: Why were youkai afraid of vampires? Vampires are usually a rarity in Gensokyo, and Yuuka found the ones that resided in her old mansion to be rather weak like a frail bird. However, she thinks that a vampire could be the first of many clues to this incident.

Today is Friday, but most importantly it is Friday the 13th in December, on a month that takes place at the end of the year, where many are celebrating the holidays and what presents to give to each other, and where many students are taking exams. The feeling of uncertainty over grades, presents and what lies ahead of the new year sends a frightening and chilling fear into many people. Very scary! 🥶

So this one is most definitely not an aster. 😅The branches and pinecones in the photos are from the Norway Spruce(Abies picea), which is part of the Pine family (Pinaceae). It is native to Europe, but has its fame and cultivation for being the typical Christmas Tree, although it isn't ideal to use for that purpose as it can dry out very quickly. This tree can be very giant, growing up to 40-50 meters tall, but there are cultivars of this tree that are grown smaller and fir-looking. These giant trees can live very long lives, too.

These structures that are broken off of the Norway spruce are called cones, noted for their wooded and scale-like structure. Cones are found in all pine family trees. They are often a fan favorite and collected by small critters like squirrels, who break off the wooden scales to consume the seeds or nuts within the cone.

The name Picea for spruces is latin for "pitch-black" and it might refer to the darker colors of the bark of spruces. The name abies in its species name means "fir" and is the literal name of the fir genus, because spruces and firs were usually placed under the same category of "spruce firs" long ago. Nowadays, we know some differences between them so spruces are placed in Picea while firs are placed in Abies. Norway spruces in particular were called almost always called Picea, but like the white snakeroot of a previous post it has been placed under different genera until it was eventually settled back to Picea with the name Picea abies.

Yosemite Nature Notes 46(2) (1977): Who Ate That Cone? by Beth Huning and Linda Yemoto

[botaniqueer]

Visited my family in Oregon!! It’s also the first time in like a decade that I got to walk to nature trails again, and with much more appreciation for the vegetation! I really like how coastal vegetation looks. It’s kind of weathered and scraggly, but in a very aesthetic way. I def need to visit west Seattle more so I can see my friend the Pacific Ocean more often.

— A native crabapple! I didn’t realize they had weird elongated fruits like this. (Malus fusca)

— A native terrestrial orchid. They’re very cute and I love them a lot. (Goodyera oblongifolia)

— Sea thrift! A coastal aster. (Armeria maritma)

— A species of huckleberry. And of course I ate some. (Vaccinium ovata)

— Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis)

— A fern party. (Polypodium californicum)

[bonsaiempire]

Check out our latest video, a two year progression of a cheap Spruce into a nice Bonsai tree: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgmE93G3f-A

[wenbochenphoto]

West Himalayan Spruce

This is the most gorgeous conifer I have ever seen, handsome, charming and majestically mysterious. Picea smithiana, originally from the western and central part of the Himalayas, is an evergreen tree that can grow up to 60m tall. Unfortunately, not suitable for your urban garden due to the size and the space it requires…

[paleoforest]

Conifer trees every Xmas be like:

Finally, I make some fictional yolka's on last weekend!

I dunno why tf, but I like Conifers externally & aesthetically, even though I can barely distinguish spruce, fir and pine from each other. I really want know basic differences, history and how their ancestors looked like in Mesozoic era. Well, at least now I practice how to draw 'em!

So, I imagine spruces in a variety colors & shapes, like a red Christmas tree (which I seen a lot irl in stores as little decorations in my city), but as real species! These concepts will be flora in my dino lore.

Эти ёлки просто имба!

[crudlynaturephotos]

[zarigueyamuerta]

An Experiment:

Examining the preferences of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginiana) for native (Picea glauca) vs. non-native (Picea abies) spruce cones

Methodology:

Results:

Inconclusive, deer running left could indicate a preference for native cone, more controls are needed.

[yirf-pokeri]

Boston Traditional Landscape Picture of a medium-sized, conventional, gravel driveway on a yard with full sun.

[identifyingplantsinposts]

Picea pungens--blue spruce, aka Colorado Spruce, aka pokey bottle brush

This is what I wished for this winter! Thank you so much nature! I love you. ♡

[emaadsidiki]

Serbian Spruce 🌲🏡

[flarefighters-fr]

Some more art of Picea while I try to figure stuff out. Loving the 100x100 styled art I'm trying though shading and colored lineart is something I need to practice

[deanschlichting]

Worlds largest spruce tree, picea sitchensis, quinalt rainforest, Olympic National Forest, Washington USA

[pnwnativeplants]

1,000 year old sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis) with me for scale.