spruce

Spruces are evergreen trees of the pine family. They have hard sharp needles and soft leathery cones hanging from the branches. Perhaps the most familiar is the traditional Christmas tree, the Norway spruce.

Coniferous tree belonging to the pine family, found over much of the northern hemisphere. Pyramidal in shape, spruces have rigid, prickly needles and drooping, leathery cones. Some are important forestry trees, such as the sitka spruce (P. sitchensis), native to western North America, and the Norway spruce (P. abies), now planted widely in North America. (Genus Picea, family Pinaceae.)