Part 1
This elegant, slender wood looks especially beautiful when it grows in a completely open place.
The crown of such a tree has the shape of a regular narrow cone. The long lower branches bend slightly to the ground, the higher ones become shorter and shorter and gradually rise to the top. The top of the tree is always sharp and never blunted, even when the tree is old. Spruce crowns are similar to the tips of giant peaks pointing to the sky.
A tall and slender spruce grows only when the top bud of the tree normally opens every year and gives rise to a new escape. This is the most important bud of the tree, it ensures the growth of spruce in height. If a young spruce's top bud has been damaged or the shoot on which it is cut, the appearance of the tree changes dramatically. The main trunk stops growing, and the side branches closest to the top gradually rise upwards. As a result, instead of a tall and slender tree, it turns out to be low and ugly. Deciduous trees do not have such a thing. If the top of a young birch or oak tree is damaged, it does not affect the appearance of the tree, and it grows quite normal.
The area of natural distribution of spruce in our country is quite large - almost the entire northern half of the European part of the Union. In the Urals and Siberia, the Siberian spruce is widespread. Both spruce trees look very similar. They differ by the scales of the cones. The European spruce spruce has angular and uneven edges, while the Siberian spruce has absolutely flat and rounded edges.
But let's continue the story about the spruce. In the European part of the country the spruce does not go far to the south, as it is moisture-loving. In this respect, the spruce is much more whimsical than pine, which grows perfectly on very dry sands.
Like pine spruce, annual rings of wood are clearly visible on the cross section of the trunk. Some annual rings are wider, others narrower. Wide rings are formed in humid years, favorable for spruce growth, narrow rings are formed in dry years. Especially narrow rings correspond to extremely dry and critical for spruce years. If you carefully examine the stump of an old spruce, you can find out what years of severe drought. Therefore, the spruce seems to "record" the weather. And if the tree is old, these "records" cover not only previous decades, but even centuries.
The width of a spruce's annual ring is determined not only by the amount of precipitation. It also depends heavily on the lighting conditions in which the tree grows. In the forest, for example, the annual rings will be narrower than in the open.
On the rings on the tree stump you can trace the "biography" of the tree itself, its living conditions in different periods. For example, in the center of the tree stump we see only one narrow annual ring, and then immediately begins the wood with wide rings. This means that at first the spruce grew in the forest and was shaded by the neighbors, and then found itself in an open place and began to grow in better light.
The spruce is demanding not only to the soil humidity, but also to its fertility. This tree never grows on the extremely nutrient-poor sphagnum bogs, on barren sands. Finally, the spruce is also very sensitive to spring frosts, which ruin its young, newly appeared, still immature shoots. You may have seen frozen young Christmas trees in the open in the beginning of summer (felling, large meadows among the forest, etc.). Some of their needles are green, old, and the young shoots are dried up, brown as if burnt by fire.
Spruce conifers live on branches for a long time - usually up to 5-7 years. They are much shorter than pine trees. The stem is covered with them densely, but we can still see that they are located alone. The ends of pine needles are very prickly. It is not without reason that spruce branches cover the ornamental plants in flowerbeds for the winter to protect them from damage by mice. The stabbing needles of the mouse are beware.
Spruce has a thick, dense crown that creates a strong shade. Under the canopy of the spruce forest reigns a mysterious darkness. Where young spruce trees grow very densely and the shade is particularly strong, the ground remains completely uncovered by plants. Only a thick layer of dry fallen needles covers the soil. Even the most shady forest herbs and mosses cannot exist here.
The continuation should be...