Norway spruce

The Norway Spruce - Christmas Tree

In Britain the Norway Spruce is the traditional species used to decorate our homes at Christmas.

The Norway spruce was a native species in the British Isles before the last Ice Age. it did not return naturally with the melting of the ice but was reintroduced here before the 1500's.

Its natural distribution ranges across the Pyrenees, Alps and Balkans, northwards to south Germany and Scandinavia, and eastwards through the Carpathian Mountains and Poland, to western Russia.

More about the Norway Spruce

Its botanical name is Picea abies.

Piceais from the Latin pix, alluding to the pith or resin some species produce.

The second part of the name, abies harks back to when this tree was classified in the Abies or fir genus.

Norway spruce plantations provide dense year-round cover for many small birds and animals; goldcrests and long-tailed tits find both shelter and food in the tree top.

Yet More About the Norway Spruce!

The Norway Spruce is a very useful timber tree as well.

Two of the trade names for this leading world timber are "Whitewood" and "White Deal". It is used for boxes, packing cases, building, joinery, paper pulp and chipboard.

Older uses of Norway spruce included its use for fuel, charcoal, potash, Burgundy Pitch for medicinal plasters, tanning, scaffolding poles, ladders, spars, oars, masts for boats, flooring, musical instruments, lining parts of furniture, packing cases, fencing, roofing for agricultural buildings.

The inner bark was at one time used to make baskets and canoes. The shoots were made into spruce beer.

Even More About the Norway Spruce!

The tree was also used for medicinal purposes.

The resin was a source of Jura turpentine. This contains the drug Resina Pini and was used to make healing ointments and skin pastes.

A tea made from the young shoots was used in folk medicine to ease respiratory troubles such as influenza, coughs and catarrh. The needles were added to bath water.

When boiled in milk whey, the cones made a remedy for scurvy.

Finally about the Norway Spruce!

The tree is conical in shape. It has somewhat sharp rich-green needles and long rounded cones. The bark is brown and scaly, and flakes off the surface. The branches of young trees grow upwards. When the tree matures the branches at the bottom droop slightly.

Trees first bear the red-brown hanging cones on the topmost branches when 30-35 years old. They flower in May. The seeds ripen and drop from the cones that winter although Norway spruce does not often produce good seed crops in Britain.

This tree is not long-lived in the UK. Old specimens often fall victim to heart rot near the bottom of the trunk where it shears off and topples.

How the Custom Started

The specific origin of the Christmas tree is lost in the dim and distant past. It may have started when pre-Christian rituals involving evergreen boughs were merged with Christian celebrations and beliefs.

It seems to be generally recognised that the people who lived in what is now Germany were the first to develop the tradition of the Christmas tree.

One tradition is that about 1000 years ago, in Germany, St Boniface came across a group of pagans worshipping under an oak tree. He was so annoyed that he cut down the tree. To his surprise he found that a fir tree grew in its place and the fir was thereafter associated with the primacy of the Christian faith.

Martin Luther is credited with first placing candles on the Christmas tree. After his banishment from the Catholic church he spent a great deal of time walking through the forests of evergreen conifers thinking through his beliefs. The candles are said to have represented the stars which were seen by him through the trees

The custom of a decorated Christmas tree appears to have started in Britain in the nineteenth century. Albert, the Prince Consort to Queen Victoria, brought the tradition from his homeland of Saxe Coburg which is now part of Germany. The example set by royalty became a general fashion.

Caring for your Christmas Tree

You will need to treat your Christmas tree in a sensible way to maintain its freshness until 'twelfth night', the traditional end of Christmas.

When buying a Christmas tree try and ensure that it is a reasonably fresh tree. It should look healthy with dark green foliage and no great amount of yellowing needles.

When you bring the tree back to your home place the stem in a bucket of water in a garage or some other cool place until you are ready to deal with it.

Before bringing the tree into your house tap the base of the tree on to the floor so that any loose needles drop to the ground. Then saw off the last couple of inches of the bottom of the stem.

A Christmas tree will need a container in which to stand indoors. There are available for sale containers which will both give support to the tree and hold water. The water will be transpired by the tree and help keep it as fresh as possible under the circumstances.

Buy a container which will hold at least a couple of pints of water If you cannot buy a satisfactory container then the next best thing is to place the tree in a bucket filled with a gravel and pour in water to a level near the top. Fine soil can block up the pores of the tree and prevent it using the water you provide.

Place the tree indoors in as cool a place as possible. Try and avoid placing the tree close to a radiator.

Every day or so top up the water level in the container as you will be surprised how much water can be used by the tree.

If you follow the above instructions you will have a fresh looking decorative tree with a minimum amount of dropped needles to contend with when you remove it.

After Christmas many local authorities establish points to which you can take your Christmas tree to be chipped up and used as a garden mulch.