White spruce is found throughout PEI in pure stands or in mixtures with red spruce, balsam fir, white birch and the aspens. White spruce is the main species regenerated on old, abandoned farms, where it forms dense even aged stands. It grows best on dell-drained, moist, gravelly soil along streams and around the borders of swamps. White spruce is used for lumber and pulpwood. The wood is noted for it's resilience. Because it has good resonant qualities, it is used as sounding boards in musical instruments.

Source: "Native Trees of Prince Edward Island and the more Common Woodland Shrubs". by J.F. Gaudet and W.M. Profitt Dept. of Agriculture. Charlottetown, PEI. 1958.

Description

• Leaves:
  Needle-like, 4-sided in cross section, stiff, sharp-pointed, usually twisted and crowned towards the upper side of the twig 1/3 to 3/4 of an inch long, bright green, pungent odor when bruised or crushed.
• Flowers:
  May-June unisexual, male pale red, soon appearing yellow, female with yellow-green scales, both on same tree.
• Fruit:
  Autumn, a cylindrical pale green pendent cone, turning brown at maturity 1 1/2 to 2 inch long, scales thin. Flexible, straight or slightly rounded and smooth on the margins; opening at maturity falling before new cones are formed.
• Twigs:
  Slender, smooth or only sparsely hairy, orange-brown to grey; buds blunt 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch long with overlapping chestnut-brown scales.
• Bark:
  Ash-brown to silvery, thin, the outer layers separating into thin closely attached scales, inner bark streaked with reddish brown layers.

Spruce twigs compared. Going left to right is Black, Red, and White Spruce.

For additional descriptions and pictures of this species, check out:

• Atlantic Forestry Centre, or the
• Silvics of North America and the
• Iowa State University Dendrology page and the
• Dendrology at Virginia Tech Page and the
• Virtual Foliage Homepage.
• The Natural History of the Northwoods.

The Provincial Government has a number of Forest Management Notes. An interesting one pertaining to this species is The Effects of Tree Spacing on Diameter, Height and Branch Size in White Spruce. Requires Acrobat Reader.

In 1806, John Stewart wrote an excellent description of Forest Trees and Other Vegetable Productions on PEI at that time.