El Engelman's fir tree: description and photo

A coniferous plant spruce grows almost everywhere. There are quite a few species of this evergreen tree. One of the most beautiful is the fir tree of Engelman. About its varieties, about when to plant and how to take care of it, read in the article.

General information

Spruce of Engelman from the genus of the El family of Pine. In the natural environment, the area of its growth covers the rocky mountains of the forest belt of North America. It grows in the shadow of mountain slopes and valleys at high altitude, 1500-3500 meters above ground level in vast areas of clean and mixed forests.

Its neighbors of the lower belt at the place of their growth may be monochrome and pretty firs, western burrows, larches, twisted wide-tailed pines, and the upper one - subalpine fir, mountain marshes, Lyell larch, blond, soft pines.

As a decorative coniferous breed in Europe has been cultivated for a long time, from the middle of the 19th century, and in Russia - from the end of the same century. El Engelman's Tree is a fast growing tree. Has not received wide distribution, as few regions are suitable for its growth. On average, she lives three hundred or four hundred years, but in some cases her life lasts six hundred years. It has high frost resistance.

Characteristics of the species

It is an evergreen plant with high decorative qualities. Despite the fact that each form of this plant has properties that distinguish it from other spruce, they all fit the description of "large". Indeed, this plant reaches twenty meters and more in height and ninety centimeters in diameter. Its powerful coniferous cover is measured three centimeters in length and two millimeters wide.

In addition, the fir-wood of Engelman, of which its kind is not speaking, is characterized by a special position of the branches: they are all slightly inclined downwards, as if they are crying. The dense crown has a conical shape and is often asymmetric. The thin crust with numerous cracks is covered with scales. It has a reddish-brown color. Young shoots have a yellowish tinge.

The kidneys are conical, and the needles are tetrahedral. It is sharp, two or four stomatal lines are visible on each side of it. The color of the needles of the young fir is gray-green, and the old tree is green. Growing in places of origin, the firs do not shed their needles from the branches for fifteen years.

Description of fruits

The cones are ovoid-cylindrical in shape. On branches are in a hanging position. Their length reaches four to seven centimeters, width - two and a half. Immature cones have a burgundy color, and mature - light brown tone. Toothed scales are located on the surface loosely. The maturity period is August or September. Falling cones in the spring for next year, while they do not crumble.

Seeds are located in the axils of scales. Their length is three millimeters. They are painted in brown color and have one wing with a length of twelve millimeters. The seeds are very small. For comparison: one thousand pieces of seed weighs only three grams.

Using

Spruce is often a guest in foreign gardens. It looks better in solitary plantings, although it does not lose its decorativeness and when grouping from a small number of specimens. It is planted in public gardens, along the roads of city streets, in squares. Used to create alley zones.

This species of coniferous tree species has several varieties. The most popular is the spruce of Engelman Glauca. Some trees are dwarfish, with a small growth and unusual for us the color of the needles, which is white.

Spruce Glauca Canadian

The name speaks for itself: this species of coniferous trees is American. Spruce is the main species in the formation of the taiga of Canada. The tree can grow at a height of one thousand five hundred meters. According to climatic conditions, growth is analogous to Siberian spruce. Therefore, Siberia for Glauci is the second home.

In translation from the Latin language, the name spruce means "sisaya". Although the decorative bluish forms have many spruce. But for the Canadian variety, such needle coloring is the norm. Growing in a natural environment, spruce has a less bright color of needles than cultivated trees, and a large height, up to thirty meters. The crown is dense, conical in shape, reaching a diameter of two meters. In young trees, the branches are directed tangentially upward, while in the old fir trees they are lowered.

Lives for a long time, three hundred to five hundred years. It grows on soils of any composition, but prefers loamy soils with good drainage. Spruce of Engelman glauca is resistant to Siberian frosts. Garden forms and varieties of Canadian spruce (there are many of them) reproduce vegetatively. The main way is rooting cuttings.

Low-grown varieties are called snow-covered. Their growth in Siberia does not cause problems. But other varietal varieties need shading during the bright winter and early spring rays of the sun. Especially it concerns conical trees.

Pendula Spruce Serbian

This is the most beautiful plant of wood species, characterized by a weeping form . El Engelman Pendula Spruce reaches a height of twelve meters at the age of twenty. For a year it grows by ten to fifteen centimeters. And in ten years its height is fifteen meters. The crown is wide, its diameter is one and a half meters. Flexible shoots hang down. Flat needles are green, with a whitish bloom from below, and a length of up to two centimeters.

Spruce prefers neutral soils and moderate hydration. Do not tolerate compacted soils and stagnant water. Therefore, it should be planted away from the accumulation of a large number of groundwater. At the bottom of the landing pit should put a layer of drainage capacity of twenty centimeters. For this, you can use broken brick or sand. In case of group plantings, the distance between spruce trees should be two to three meters. Landing pits are deep, fifty to seventy centimeters. When planting the neck of the root does not go deeper into the ground, it should be on a level with the ground.

For a better survival of seedlings, you can independently prepare soil from sod and leaf land, sand and peat. Two parts of the first two components are mixed together, and one of them is the last. As soon as the landing is over, the seedlings are watered with plenty of water: forty-fifty liters per pit. Simultaneously with irrigation fertilizers are introduced: nitroammophoska and cornevi, respectively one hundred and ten grams per bucket of water.

Spruce of Engelman, whose photo is presented for viewing, does not tolerate dry weather. In extreme heat, it needs watering, which must be done weekly, only once. Each tree is watered with ten buckets of water. The soil in the near-round circle should be regularly loosened to a depth of five centimeters, not to allow the formation of a crust, and for the winter mulch peat six centimeters thick. After a cold period, the mulch is not removed, but mixed with the soil.

During the vegetative season, fertilizers are introduced twice. Spruce is pruned in exceptional cases, when their shoots form a hedge. This procedure is best left at the end of May or the beginning of June, because at this time the active movement of the juice stops. Healthy branches are not removed. The tree is saved from dry and diseased branches.

El Bush Leys

The name of this species variety is translated from English as "Bush lace". This tree is seven meters high, about two meters wide. At the age of ten his height is two and a half meters. For a year it grows to thirty centimeters in height.

Ellemane's fur Leis is extraordinarily beautiful. The central conductor is strong, branches have an interesting feature. At the base they are raised, and their tips are dangling. Around the trunk the branches form a broad skirt. The narrow crown at the spruce is vertical, with a saturated blue color of the needles. Unusual shape and unusual color of the needles attract connoisseurs of beauty. Spruce is used for landscaping of territories as a tapeworm and in group plantings.