Example ⟳ +
An example collection, so you can see what this page does. Nothing added here is kept: leaving deletes it.
Picea mariana; photograph (c) Russell Parsons, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Russell Parsons, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-09-13

Picea mariana (Mill.) Britton, Sterns & Poggenb.

Bog spruce; Black spruce; Swamp spruce; Shortleaf black spruce

Pinaceae · Alaska, Nunavut +26 · listed by its genus as a temperate garden plant

Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Picea mariana (Mill.) Britton, Sterns & Poggenb.: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, (Mill.) Britton et al.

Add one to my plants
Sow seed
Picea mariana, photograph (c) Russell Parsons, some rights reserved (CC BY)Picea mariana, photograph (c) jyoung2399, some rights reserved (CC BY)Picea mariana, photograph (c) Alex Baxter, some rights reserved (CC BY)Picea mariana, photograph (c) Alex Baxter, some rights reserved (CC BY)Picea mariana, photograph (c) Charlie Pavlisich, some rights reserved (CC BY)Picea mariana, photograph author not stated, no rights reserved 55 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-29.6°C
Record low -43.0 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
23°C
Jul at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
880mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
7–38DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Picea mariana, the black spruce, is a North American species of spruce tree in the pine family. It is widespread across Canada, found in all 10 provinces and all 3 territories. It is the official tree of Newfoundland and Labrador and is that province's most abundant tree. Its range extends into northern parts of the United States: in Alaska, the Great Lakes region, and the upper Northeast. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Picea mariana", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Grouped as a temperate garden plant, listed under the genus Picea in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “tree”, “temperate”.

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (704 mm of 914 mm) takes 8 months, April to November. Mean temperature moves 28.8 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: October to May.

Rain

914 mm in the median year at the habitat, 704 mm of it April to November. Wettest months (2 at 101 mm), driest month February at 43 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 567 mm to 1,458 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 880 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 914 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 7 to 38 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 1, the highest 90th-percentile month 42).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -29.6 °C, the absolute minimum -43.0 °C, 8,014 frost nights in 44 years, 182.1 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 30.5 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -14.9 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -22.3 °C to -8.6 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 22.6 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -29.6 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 56 to 66% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +49 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Group. Listed under the genus Picea in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “tree”, “temperate”. A group is taken only where Kew's description of the species agrees with the table's listing. The table gives no figure and no prose; the cold floor is the habitat's alone.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Picea mariana through the yearWarmest month July, mean daily high 23 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low -14.9 °C; 914 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-60°-40°-20°0°20°40°frost30.5° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-43.0° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 7–38RH 56–66%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 1076 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C-7 / -15–-1-5 / -11–00 / -4–48 / 3–1215 / 9–1820 / 15–2323 / 18–2622 / 17–2517 / 12–2010 / 4–133 / -5–7-4 / -13–2
Night °C-15 / -22–-9-13 / -20–-9-8 / -14–-5-1 / -6–25 / 1–811 / 7–1415 / 10–1715 / 9–1710 / 5–134 / -2–7-3 / -11–2-11 / -19–-4
Rain mm55 / 22–11143 / 18–10149 / 24–11466 / 24–11881 / 41–11798 / 69–124101 / 76–13292 / 75–125101 / 60–13092 / 41–13673 / 30–13563 / 24–135
DLI10 / 3–1116 / 8–1825 / 19–2632 / 29–3436 / 34–3938 / 36–4237 / 33–4032 / 26–3424 / 16–2615 / 9–189 / 4–117 / 1–9
RH %66 / 61–7064 / 60–6760 / 57–6356 / 54–6156 / 54–6158 / 55–6259 / 57–6360 / 58–6361 / 58–6361 / 59–6463 / 60–6866 / 61–71
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 1076 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (1358 records in those cells; 2 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 888:2028 (45.575, -78.575). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -43.0 °C, 1st-percentile night -29.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 30.5 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 1076 distinct grid cells holding 1358 of the 1360 in-range records (2 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 888:2028 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 45.50_-78.750, lapse-corrected +49 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 466 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeAlaska, Nunavut, Northwest Territories, Yukon, Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Labrador, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward I., Québec, Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., Vermont · introduced: Norway, Sweden · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker46.148, -89.65 · in the densest population, 531 records (30% of those in range)
Kew's description“tree” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1742 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 1358 of them in the land cells it reads, of 1360 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 793 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 55 km away. 63 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 382 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 1742 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Picea mariana, photograph 1did not loadPicea mariana, photograph 2did not loadPicea mariana, photograph 3did not loadPicea mariana, photograph 4did not loadPicea mariana, photograph 5did not loadPicea mariana, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Russell Parsons, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) jyoung2399, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Alex Baxter, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Charlie Pavlisich, some rights reserved (CC BY); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0.

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Maianthemum trifolium Maianthemum trifolium Threeleaf false lily of the valley Photo: CC BY, Alex BaxterRhododendron groenlandicum Rhododendron groenlandicum Bog Labrador tea Photo: CC0, author not statedSalix pyrifolia Salix pyrifolia Balsam willow Photo: CC0, author not statedRibes glandulosum Ribes glandulosum Skunk currant Photo: CC BY, S BoisvertPopulus balsamifera Populus balsamifera Balsam poplar Photo: CC0, author not statedCarex houghtoniana Carex houghtoniana Houghton's sedge Photo: CC BY, Eric Lamb

Other Picea 35 in the reference

Picea abies Picea abies Norway spruce Photo: CC BY, Марина Давлетшина Picea × albertiana Pinaceae Picea alcoquiana Picea alcoquiana Alcock's Spruce Photo: CC BY-SA, Inti-solPicea asperata Picea asperata Dragon spruce Photo: CC BY, rduta on FlickrPicea brachytyla Picea brachytyla Sargent's Spruce Photo: CC0, author not statedPicea breweriana Picea breweriana Brewer spruce Photo: CC BY, Sam EberhardPicea chihuahuana Picea chihuahuana Chihuahua spruce Photo: CC BY, Rodolfo Maximiliano Gutiérrez-SánchezPicea crassifolia Picea crassifolia Qinghai spruce Photo: CC0, no rights reservedPicea engelmannii Picea engelmannii Engelmann spruce Photo: CC BY, Daughter DadPicea × fennica Picea × fennica Pinaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedPicea glehnii Picea glehnii Sakhalin spruce Photo: CC BY, Andrew BazdyrevPicea jezoensis Picea jezoensis Yezo spruce Photo: CC BY, Violetta Dzizyurova all 36 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Abies denticulata; Abies mariana; Abies nigra; Abies nigra var. nana; Abies nigra var. pumila and 36 more. (GBIF Backbone)

Under another author Pinus nigra Aiton is an older name of this species, not Pinus nigra, a species of the reference. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Pinaceae
Described by
(Mill.) Britton, Sterns & Poggenb.
Native to
Alaska, Nunavut, Northwest Territories +25
Wild records
1742 in range · 793 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22GBIF's key 5284802 is Picea mariana (Mill.) Britton et al.; the page links Kew's Picea mariana (Mill.) Britton, Sterns & Poggenb., and the name is cited as Kew cites it
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 29 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (28 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 45.50_-78.750, lapse-corrected +49 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 99 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…