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As a spinoff on the old thread involving palm trees when heading south, here's a more boreal take involving a plant that thrives in cold weather and can't survive long, hot summers.
I live in a region near the southern limit of any form of spruce trees, and due to the warming climate, my worry is that they may disappear towards the end of my lifetime due to the additional challenges required by needing more water to combat the hot/humid summers. Whenever I drive south, they pretty much disappear once you get past Richmond, VA due to intolerable growing conditions.
At my parent's summer house in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, the neighboring house contains two Colorado Blue Spruce trees in its backyard, one nice and healthy, but another dead, indicating that the climate there is borderline for the cultivation of this species that often looks a little like a type of Christmas tree. They generally grow almost as far south as the "Palm line" in many circumstances though with proper care.
There's also the White Spruce, which is even less heat hardy and only found in climates with mild summers and truly cold winters. I've never seen any of those unless if I get close to the Canadian border away from the coast. In between the two in range is the Norway Spruce.
Still, whenever you start seeing more spruces than evergreen magnolias on the road, you know that you're starting to transition from a subtropical to a temperate climate with a notably-defined winter season. Please share your experiences about when you begin to see various species of spruce trees on the road.
the neighboring house contains two Colorado Blue Spruce trees in its backyard, one nice and healthy, but another dead, indicating that the climate there is borderline for the cultivation of this species that often looks a little like a type of Christmas tree.
A sample size of two is a little on the small side to determine the boundary of spruce habitat with any certainty.
Where my parents live in Greensboro there are spruce looking trees planted outside. I see a vast different set of trees from Raleigh to My Airy when I drive it.
I'm in St. Louis and we are probably on that line.
Blue Spruce and Norway Spruce are here. We also have Southern Magnolia and Bald Cypress. You won't see too many of these in our natural habitats, but they are common in yards. And they all seem to do alright, although the Magnolias grow very slow here.
Here in CA you don’t really start seeing Sitka Spruce until you get around Mendocino and Fort Bragg, which is about 3 and a half hours north of San Francisco.
Well, spruce aren't quite as solid of an indicator of climate as palms because their survival is more dictated by water and lack of competition than temps. They wouldn't naturally grow in St. Louis or Delaware because they are too slow growing and would be out competed, but when people control for that, they can live on.
In Colorado, prior to development, there would basically be no spruce until you get into the foothills. In the foothills, its only blue spruce in the creekbeds (they need more water than other ones), on the hillsides it's pine and Douglas fir until about 8-9000 ft. At 10-12000 feet is where the Engelman spruce take over and make a thick blanket of a forest, being one of the few trees that survive. The Engelman are very slow growing, but can take the cold and the constant wind, turning into shrubs at their limits. But you can plant an Engelman spruce in Pueblo (hot) and it'll do ok if it's irrigated. However, there's a beetle in CO that's killing entire swaths and mountain ranges of spruce, the firs and some pines live right on, but the spruce are dying wholesale because of drought and the excessive monoculture nature created.
Visiting Oregon, it seemed like the spruce were where it was windy, where they had a competitive advantage. Inland a bit, other trees dominated.
Well, spruce aren't quite as solid of an indicator of climate as palms because their survival is more dictated by water and lack of competition than temps. They wouldn't naturally grow in St. Louis or Delaware because they are too slow growing and would be out competed, but when people control for that, they can live on.
In Colorado, prior to development, there would basically be no spruce until you get into the foothills. In the foothills, its only blue spruce in the creekbeds (they need more water than other ones), on the hillsides it's pine and Douglas fir until about 8-9000 ft. At 10-12000 feet is where the Engelman spruce take over and make a thick blanket of a forest, being one of the few trees that survive. The Engelman are very slow growing, but can take the cold and the constant wind, turning into shrubs at their limits. But you can plant an Engelman spruce in Pueblo (hot) and it'll do ok if it's irrigated. However, there's a beetle in CO that's killing entire swaths and mountain ranges of spruce, the firs and some pines live right on, but the spruce are dying wholesale because of drought and the excessive monoculture nature created.
Visiting Oregon, it seemed like the spruce were where it was windy, where they had a competitive advantage. Inland a bit, other trees dominated.
It depends on the species, but I know that aside from climate, water and competition Sitka Spruce doesn’t grow at high or low elevations, it has to be at sea level especially in the warmer parts of their range. That’s why you only really see them close to coastline in California, Oregon, Washington and most of BC. Once you start to get really far north in British Columbia, around Prince Rupert, you’ll start to see more and more of them inland as far as Vanderhoof (gorgeous area to visit btw highly recommend); but the farther inland you go the sparser they are also significantly less tall and majestic as they are on the coast, and the wood isn’t as good. Sitka Spruce is a really common wood to use for guitar soundboards but if you are buying timber to make instruments you’ll often see those labeled “inland spruce” being a bit cheaper, the website that I use has then up for 50 and 35 respectively for a just enough wood to make the soundboard of a single guitar, more if you want them book matched.
I'm from DC where the occasional yard has a spruce tree but many of them have died off. I'm currently in Worcester MA and while we don't have too many spruce (hemlock is more common) we have plenty of Aspen trees (which can be seen in Northern CT as well).
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