Norway spruce

Tags: Trees Description: Norway spruce is the second most common tree in Norway after birch. The tree has needles that are green all year round. The needles sit one by one and are fairly short compared with the needles of pine. Spruce cones are narrow, long and brown. Norway spruce is one of the tree species that arrived in Norway most recently. You can easily work out the age of a spruce tree in the forest. Each year the spruce produces a new whorl of branches. For the first four years the branch whorls disappear, so you can count the number of whorls and add four. That gives you the age of the spruce.

Use: From April to May you can gather the pale green new shoots. They are full of vitamin C and taste fresh and tart. They can be used as a garnish in salads. Boil them with sugar, and you get a delicious spruce syrup that you can eat on pancakes, or you can turn it into ice cream. If you chop the young spruce shoots, mix them with salt or sugar and dry them, you get a delicious aromatic spruce-shoot salt or sugar. You can also put the fresh spruce shoots into boiling water and get a delicious cup of tea. Norway spruce often has twigs right down to the ground. These are dry and good for getting a fire going. Habitat type: Forest Edible: Yes Equipment: A bucket to put the spruce shoots in. Written by: Lærke Stewart

, via Wikimedia Commons](Gran/Gran.jpg)

Norway spruce with cones. Photo: Plamen Agov, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Text: Lærke Søndergaard

Next steps

• Pine — another tree species
• Oak — another tree species
• Aspen — another tree species
• Forest — the biotope
• Plants — the hub

Learn more

• Artsdatabanken — species, status, the Red List
• SNL — Norwegian botany — encyclopaedic
• Sopp- og Nyttevekstforbundet — courses and checks
• Botanisk forening — the Norwegian botany community