With a high strength-to-weight ratio, Sitka spruce is used in a variety of structural products and is a favoured wood in the aircraft and shipbuilding industries. The top-grade clear wood is used for piano and guitar soundboards as it has excellent resonating properties.
Sitka spruce is the largest of the spruces, growing up to 70 metres tall and two metres in diameter. Found along the Pacific Coast, it is valued for wood that is light, soft, relatively strong and flexible.
Where it grows
Sitka spruce grows in a narrow band along B.C.’s coast from sea level to about 700 metres. It is rarely more than 80 kilometres inland and is most common along the coastal fog belt and on river and stream floodplains.
The species grows in pure stands, but is also commonly mixed with Douglas-fir, western red cedar and red alder. Pure stands may develop on the Pacific Coast where ocean spray has a strong influence on vegetation because Sitka spruce tolerates sodium inputs where other trees may not.
Did you know?
With its high strength-to-weight ratio, Sitka spruce is a favoured wood in the aircraft and shipbuilding industries. The original flying plane built by the Wright brothers and the Second World War British Mosquito bombers were made with Sitka spruce.
Identifiable characteristics
Sitka spruce is a large tree that grows to a height of 70 metres and a diameter of two metres when mature with an estimated lifespan of 700 to 800 years. The largest known Sitka spruce in B.C. is 95 metres tall and five metres across. The bark is very thin, brown or purplish-grey, and breaks up into small scales.
Sitka spruce needles are light green to bluish-green, stuff and sharp. They are four-sided but slightly flattened with two white bands running along the upper surface and two narrower bands along the lower surface. The needles are arranged spirally along the twig and are attached by small pegs that remain on the twig after the needles fall.
Seed cones are reddish to yellowish brown and hang from the crown. Their seed scales are thin, wavy, and irregularly toothed. Pollen cones are red.
Did you know?
Carmanah Walbran Provincial Park on western Vancouver Island offers protection to diverse forest ecosystems and is home to some of the world’s largest Sitka spruce trees—including one that is 95 metres tall and more than 800 years old.
