White Spruce–picea glauca

colour photo of White Spruce.

White Spruce is found across Ontario but is most common in the Boreal forest, on dry to fresh upland sites. It has sharp short needles (2 cm) that are bluish green to green in colour. The cones are small and light. White Spruce is a favourite target for spruce budworm.

White Spruce is most commonly used as dimensional lumber but is also used in pulp and paper and is a popular Christmas tree. White Spruce represents 4% of Ontario’s growing stock volume.

Map of White Spruce relative occurrence

map of White Spruce distribution in Ontario indicating low (light brown), moderate and high (dark green-brown) levels of relative occurrence.

Enlarge map of White Spruce relative occurrence

Area and proportion of White Spruce in the AOU (area in hectares)

Statistic Crown Parks and protected areas Other Total
Total area containing White Spruce 4,578,308 512,503 1,123,552 6,214,362
1-25% of stand 4,133,390 482,038 1,030,954 5,646,382
26-50% of stand 350,040 25,444 61,693 437,177
51-75% of stand 38,188 1,633 5,175 44,996
76-100% of stand 56,690 3,387 25,731 85,807
Average proportion in all forest (%) 2.6 4.2 2.8 2.8
Area of White Spruce working group 250,336 19,102 69,563 339,001

Growing stock volume of White Spruce in the AOU (volume in thousands of cubic metres)

Statistic Crown Parks and protected areas Other Total
gross total volume 85,699 10,650 24,307 120,656
net merchantable volume 52,892 6,984 15,053 74,929
current annual increment 1,007 87 266 1,360

White Spruce working group area by age class

vertical bar graph of White Spruce working group area by age class including brown for Crown, green for park and grey for other.