A spruce is a tree of the genus Picea, a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal (taiga) regions of the Earth. Picea is the sole genus in the subfamily Piceoideae. Spruces are large trees, from about 20 to 60 m tall when mature, and have whorled branches and conical form. They can be distinguished from other members of the pine family by their needles (leaves), which are four-sided and attached singly to small persistent peg-like structures on the branches, and by their cones, which hang downwards after they are pollinated. The needles are shed when 4–10 years old, leaving the branches rough with the retained pegs. In other similar genera, the branches are fairly smooth.
Pinus sylvestris, the Scots pine (UK), Scotch pine (US) or Baltic pine, is a species of tree in the pine family Pinaceae that is native to Eurasia. It can readily be identified by its combination of fairly short, blue-green leaves and orange-red bark.
Picea sitchensis, the Sitka spruce, is a large, coniferous, evergreen tree growing to almost 100 meters (330 ft) tall, with a trunk diameter at breast height that can exceed 5 m (16 ft). It is by far the largest species of spruce and the fifth-largest conifer in the world, and the third-tallest conifer species. The Sitka spruce is one of the few species documented to exceed 90 m (300 ft) in height. Its name is derived from the community of Sitka in southeast Alaska, where it is prevalent. Its range hugs the western coast of Canada and the US, continuing south into northernmost California.
Gymnosporangium juniperi-virginianae is a plant pathogen that causes cedar-apple rust. In virtually any location where apples or crabapples (Malus) and Eastern red cedar coexist, cedar apple rust can be a destructive or disfiguring disease on both the apples and cedars. Apples, crabapples, and eastern red cedar are the most common hosts for this disease. Similar diseases can be found on Quince and hawthorn and many species of juniper can substitute for the eastern red cedars.
Chrysomyxa ledi var. rhododendri is a plant pathogen responsible for the disease spruce needle rust.
Lophodermium is a genus of fungi within the family Rhytismataceae. The genus contains 145 species and has a global distribution. Species of this genus are usually observed producing zone lines, conidiomata and ascomata on dead fallen leaves, but at least some are known to colonize living leaves. In many cases they then live inside the colonized leaf as a symptomless endobiont, where they are regarded as detritivores utilising dead plant matter. In a few cases they may kill all or part of the leaf prematurely, and there is a substantial literature dealing with those species as plant pathogens. The genus infects many different plant families but with a notable concentration in the family Pinaceae; many Lophodermium species are restricted to a single host genus, but some, particularly those infecting grasses, may infect several genera. Some are economically important plant pathogens, such as those that cause needlecast disease in European Black Pine, Scots Pine and Red Pine in forestry and christmas tree plantations. In these species, notably L. pinastri and L. seditiosum, the fungal spores disperse and infect the pine needles in late summer, which turn brown by the following spring and then fall off.
Coleotechnites piceaella is a moth of the family Gelechiidae. It is found in north-eastern United States and Canada. It is an introduced species in Europe and was first recorded from Great Britain in 1952, then Germany in 1963 and has expanded from there over all of central Europe, towards France, Italy and Hungary.
Gymnopilus maritimus is a fungus species of the family Hymenogastraceae first collected in northern Sardinia, Italy, in 2006. The species produces moderately sized, sturdy mushrooms of a reddish-orange colour. The cap, which can measure up to 70 millimetres (3 in) across, is covered in orange fibrils, and sometimes has small scales. The yellowish stem measures up to 110 mm (4 in) in length by 8 mm (0.3 in) in width, and sometimes shows remnants of the partial veil. The mushrooms have thick gills of a variable colour, ranging from yellow to rust but staining darker, and the yellow flesh has a mild taste. The mushrooms leave a rusty-brown spore print, while the spores themselves measure from 7.5–11.5 micrometres (0.00030–0.00045 in) in length. The species is most similar in appearance to G. arenophilus and G. fulgens, but can be differentiated from both morphologically. Despite the similarities, it is not closely related to either, suggesting convergent evolution. Instead, within the genus Gymnopilus, it is most closely related to the spectabilis–imperialis clade. However, it is not particularly similar to any of its closest relatives.
The pineapple gall adelgid is a type of conifer-feeding insect that forms pineapple-shaped plant galls on its host species, commonly Norway and Sitka spruce. The adelgids are pear-shaped, soft-bodied green insects with long antennae, closely related to the aphid. Adelges lays up to one hundred eggs at a time, one on each needle. Adelges abietis is one of the most common species; synonyms are A. gallarum-abietis, Chermes abietis and Sacciphantes abietis.
Chrysomyxa is a genus of rust fungi in the family Coleosporiaceae. The genus, widespread in the Northern Hemisphere, contains about 23 species. Rust fungi in the genus Chrysomyxa occur in boreal forests of the northern hemisphere on Pinaceae,, and most species alternate to angiosperm hosts in the Ericaceae.
Chrysomyxa ledicola is a plant pathogen responsible for the disease large-spored spruce-Labrador tea rust. It affects white spruce, black spruce, Sitka spruce, Engelmann spruce, and Labrador-tea. It is also the cause of the orange goo that covered the Iñupiat village of Kivalina, Alaska in the summer of 2011.
Chrysomyxa himalensis, is a species of rust fungi in the Coleosporiaceae family that can be found on Rhododendron and Picea species in the Himalayan region of southern Asia and was introduced in the United States.
Chrysomyxa pyrolae, is a species of rust fungi in the family Coleosporiaceae that can be found in such US states such as Alabama, Colorado, Maine and Vermont.
Spruce broom rust or yellow witches' broom rust is a fungal plant disease caused by the basidiomycete fungus known as Chrysomyxa arctostaphyli. It occurs exclusively in North America, with the most concentrated outbreaks occurring in northern Arizona and southern Colorado on blue and Engelmann spruce, as well as in Alaska on black and white spruce. This disease alternates its life cycle between two hosts, with the spruce serving as the primary host and bearberry serving as the secondary or alternate host. The name for the disease comes from the distinctive “witches broom”, commonly yellow in color, which forms on the spruce after young needles have been infected. Management must be carried out through physical or mechanical methods, such as the pruning of brooms or the removal of the secondary host from the area, because no chemical control measures have yet been determined to be economically effective. Generally, spruce broom rust is seen as a mostly cosmetic issue, and it is very rarely the direct cause of tree death; however, research has shown a reduction in overall productivity and health of infected trees, making it an important issue for logging and timber companies.
Chrysomyxa weirii, is a fungus that causes a disease, commonly known as Weir's cushion rust, of spruce trees. It is mostly a cosmetic problem, causing yellowish spotting and banding on spruce needles, but in some cases can cause severe premature defoliation. Weir’s cushion rust can also disfigure and reduce growth of spruce trees by targeting the tender needles of newly emerging shoots. This pathogen's spores are spread by wind and water splash and germinate to infect newly developing needles on the same spruce, or neighboring spruce trees. Unlike many other rust disease pathogens, C. weirii is autoecious, only infecting spruce trees. C. weirii is also microcyclic, producing only two of the five possible spore stages common in rust fungi. Trees affected by Weir's cushion rust usually have obvious symptoms, but if treated correctly, the disease can be managed.
Chrysomyxa ledi is a fungus. It occurs in Eurasia throughout the range of its broad-leaved hosts. The aecial stage is found on native and exotic spruces in Europe, including white and Engelmann spruces.
Chrysomyxa nagodhii is a species of rust fungus in the family Coleosporiaceae. It was described as new to science by Canadian mycologist Patricia E. Crane in 2001. It probably occurs throughout the range of Ledum decumbens and Rhododendron groenlandicum. On Picea, spermogonia and aecia occur on distinct rusty yellow bands on current-year needles.
Chrysomyxa neoglandulosi is a fungus. It likely occurs wherever its telial host, Ledum glandulosum Nutt., is found. The only reported aecial host, Engelmann spruce, occurs in montane to subalpine areas in western Canada and the United States.
Chrysomyxa reticulata has been found on Ledum decumbens and Ledum groenlandicum in both eastern and western Canada, as well as Wisconsin, Washington, and California, in the United States, but the aecia are so far known only from artificial inoculation of white spruce.
Nalepella, the rust mites, is a genus of very small Trombidiform mites in the family Phytoptidae. They are commonly found on a variety of conifers, including hemlock, spruce, balsam fir, and pine. They sometimes infest Christmas trees in nurseries. Nalepella mites are vagrants, meaning they circulate around the tree; females overwinter in bark cracks. Infested spruce emit a characteristic odour.
