Spruce

Picea abies

Tea that is made from the spruce helps against headache. Before Midsummer, the new shoots of spruce can be made into syrup. The spruce can be used for the same purposes as the pine. The hard resin of the spruce can be chewed. Today, the resin is made into an ointment that is used as a medicine for skin diseases and wounds.

The spruce, or the Norway spruce, is the only wild spruce species in the Nordic countries. It blooms in July, and the red female flowers develop into cones. The Siberian spruce (Picea abies ssp. obovata) – a subspecies of the spruce that grows in Northern Finland – has adapted itself to the heavy snow loads of the winter. It has shorter branches than the Norway spruce, and its canopy is clearly narrower. Thus, it is called “the candle spruce”. The annual shoots of the spruce contain vitamins A and C and minerals.