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Picea Sitchensis

The Picea Sitchensis is commonly known as Coast Spruce, Menzies' Spruce, Silver Spruce, Sitka Spruce, Tideland Spruce, Western Spruce, as well as Yellow Spruce

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Growing Regions

Sitka spruce's natural range is a narrow strip of land along the northern Pacific coast from south-central Alaska to northern California. Its widest distribution (130 miles [210 km] inland) occurs in southwestern Alaska and northern British Columbia. Its southern boundary is defined by a disjunct population in Mendocino County, California [23,24]. Sitka spruce has been extensively introduced into the British Isles [35,57].

     

General Information

The currently accepted scientific name of Sitka spruce is Picea sitchensis (Bongard) Carriere (Pinaceae) [28,50]. Species within the genus Picea form hybrid swarms at the interface of their ranges. Sitka spruce naturally hybridizes with white spruce (P. glauca) to produce Lutz spruce (Picea X lutzii Little) [22,23,24,55]. It is often difficult to identify Picea X lutzii by morphological chacteristics in stands with low levels of introgression [23]. Sitka spruce in plantations will also hybridize with Yezo spruce (Picea jezoensis), Serbian spruce (P. omorika), and Engelmann spruce (P. engelmannii) [22,23,24].

Sitka spruce is listed as a dominant overstory species in the following
published classifications:

  Natural vegetation of Oregon and Washington [16].
  Plant association and management guide: Sinslaw National Forest [27].
  Preliminary classification of forest vegetation of the Kenai
    Peninsula, Alaska [46].

Much of the information presented here is attributed to:
Griffith, Randy Scott. 1992. Picea sitchensis. In: Fire Effects Information System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available at USDA Forest Service.

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