sign in sign up
<<
Home , Abies lasiocarpa, Picea glauca, Picea mariana

Getting to know can be interesting, fun, and WHITE – BLACK SPRUCE – Pinus banksiana SUBALPINE – rewarding. This brochure describes the most common TAMARACK – – You won’t find a better symbol of our untamed northern forest than the silhouette of you will see in the . Have you met the Official Tree of the Northwest Territories? It shows up best in late If you’re looking for a , this species might not be first on your list. The In an exposed, rocky area, you come across a twisted, gnarled tree loaded with knobby If you like cool summers, cold winters, and lots of snow, you should get to know the autumn, when its feathery needles turn golden, and it stands out as the only bright tree spruce spires against a bright blue sky. White spruce trees were among the first black spruce is narrower than its white spruce cousin and looks more like an overgrown grey cones. You have found a jack pine, the most northerly of Canadian pines. These subalpine fir. It grows best in this of high elevations. A slow-growing tree, it When you identify a tree, and know its name, you are making a in a forest of dark and deciduous trees that have already lost their . colonizers after the last glacial age and have dominated our landscape ever since. pipe-cleaner than a Christmas tree. But, looks aside, this tree has got what it takes to cones have a unique property that allows them to stay on the tree and accumulate for is adapted to the poor, rocky of mountains. In protected places, this fir is straight connection with our ancestors – recognizing the beauty of trees, and This is the tamarack, the only that sheds its needles in winter, after they turn Why are spruce so at home in our chilly northern climate? Needles! By hanging onto grow just about anywhere – from the wettest to the driest slopes. years. They are serotinous: unless they are heated to a high temperature, they stay and narrow with a pointed top. But at treeline, you will see it growing stunted and their many contributions toward our well-being. yellow, and stands bare when spruce and pine trees stay green. The tamarack is a tree these cold-hardy food factories all year they get a headstart on spring. The instant When its droopy lower branches touch the ground, they put down which send tightly closed, protecting the inside. contorted, pruned by sharp, windswept snow into a dense mat. This brochure will help you get acquainted with northern trees and of cool, wet places. The next time you are out exploring muskeg or bogs, things warm up, spruce can begin photosynthesis thanks to their ever-present needles up bunches of new stems. One black spruce in northern sprouted thirty seven Fire renews the boreal forest, and jack pines are the first trees to take hold after a In the Northwest Territories, you’ll find the subalpine fir only in a small area of the forests, and their deep-rooted relationship with the people of the north. look for our Official Tree. loaded with chlorophyll. Needles also help trap solar energy and dampen the chilling stems from one tree! This trick, called layering, allows the black spruce to reproduce in burn. Their resin-sealed cones protect the seeds from flames, then open after the fire southwestern Mackenzie Mountains. It is much more common in the , where it is effects of wind. These adaptations to exploit the meager energy trickling down to them challenging habitats where other trees can’t survive. the official Territorial Tree. The north is a good place to learn and identify trees, passes. Seeds that have been stored for years fall on a sunny, fertile bed of ash: perfect help spruce trees assert their dominance in the boreal forest. conditions for the growth of new saplings. because there aren’t very many!

Getting Started – The trees described here belong to two different groups: HUMAN USES FIELD NOTES HUMAN USES FIELD NOTES HUMAN USES HUMAN USES FIELD NOTES HUMAN USES FROM A DISTANCE • Found throughout most of the forested • Prefers sites with well-drained, FROM A DISTANCE • Rocky, exposed or recently burned sites • Medium evergreen usually 20 to 35 Traditional Traditional Traditional • Often shrubby with narrow, knobby Traditional Traditional areas of the NWT, though in low mineral soils • Grow best on open, sandy soils metres • Preparations from inner used to numbers and patchy distribution • Needles and young twigs make a zesty • Spruce boughs used for tipi or tent floor crown • Pine needle tea, high in vitamin C • Baskets made from sheets of bark Deciduous trees drop all their leaves at Evergreens keep their needles year-round, so • Thin bark and shallow roots offer little • Hybridizes with close cousin Lodgepole • Narrow, tapering at the top into spire the end of the growing season, and grow they are always green. Most evergreens are also treat deep cuts, open sores, burns, boils, • A tree of cold, wet places, occurring in tea high in vitamin C fire protection • Mouth wash from boiled cones to treat • Short, droopy branches • Pine needle powder treats frostbite, • Boughs for bedding frostbite, itching, bleeding, earaches, Pine • Short sweeping branches easily shed new leaves the next spring. , trees that have cones. muskeg and sphagnum bogs • Spruce gum chewed like regular gum toothache and sore throat burns, blisters inflamed eyes • Shade-tolerant seedlings can take over UP CLOSE • for roofing shingles snow • Grows with black spruce in open • Inner bark and young shoots an deciduous stands • Rotted wood pounded in caribou hide • Pine gum good for colds FROM A DISTANCE • Tea from needles, bark, and/or roots • Needle tea a cold remedy • Often has branches nearly to the ground muskeg, and and in better emergency food source used for baby powder and deodorant Needles • Crumbly, rotted wood used as baby • Medium evergreen, often ragged-looking used to treat sore muscles, arthritis, drained areas FROM A DISTANCE • S a p from bark blisters for lung ailments diabetes, upset stomach, general health • Outer bark used to build when • Short, stiff, 4-sided needles powder • Commonly full of grey, weathered cones UP CLOSE birch not available • In open grows conical, spire-like crown Commercial (high vitamin C) • Generally blunter than white spruce • Cabin logs, planks for toboggans and Commercial FROM A DISTANCE • In dense stands branches are self- • Too small, twisted or knotty for timber Needles • Preparations from needles used for • A straight, slender conifer, 6-15 m tall, • Spruce boughs used for tipi or tent boats UP CLOSE • N o t important in the NWT • F l a t , blunt-ended, often notched at tip aches, colds, difficulty breathing with a delicate, “feathery” appearance flooring • Long straight trunk up to 10 m or more • Long wood fibres make good paper Cones Needles • Pulp, veneer, crates, boxes, and timber • Peeled and split roots used as cord for • cones rounder, smaller than white Commercial • Blue-green, single white band on top, • Wood used for paddles, drum • Crown narrows at top, pyramid-shaped • Short, stiff, sharp, twisted, yellow-green canoe seams, baskets, fish nets UP CLOSE WILDLIFE USES spruce • Lumber, , furniture, doors two below frames, toboggans, snowshoes • Branches long, graceful, sparse; without WILDLIFE USES • Snow-covered branches provide thermal • Paired, joined at base • Most turn upwards • Rotted wood and bark burned to smoke needles, branches are “knobby” • made from growing tips Needles cover • Fringed scales • Oils for antiseptic, disinfectants, • Red squirrels eat seeds fish and hides prevented scurvy in early Europeans insecticides • Short, stiff, 4-sided needles point in • Seeds a main food for red squirrels, • cones dark red in spring Cones • Spruce and ruffed grouse eat needles Cones every direction • Decorations and crafts (wreaths, • Roots used for stitching, baskets UP CLOSE chickadees, nuthatches, crossbills • Curved inwards, point to end of twig and buds Deciduous trees produce their seeds in Cones are the reproductive parts of the tree. Commercial Bark potpourri) • Cone scales fan-shaped with irregular • Waxy white layer on lower side give • Mountain caribou eat off Conifers have two types of cones: Needles • Light, tough, straight-grained wood easily • , mice and voles eat • Thin, dark grey • Usually in pairs teeth; drop in autumn leaving a bare flowers instead of in cones. You may not Commercial species its name branches • Short (1-2cm long), soft and flexible worked into specialty items like guitar seedlings WILDLIFE USES central spike recognize them as such, but the tassel-like, • Seed cones (or female cones) are the • Hard, heavy wood with high resin • Scales bigger, rougher than white spruce • Most closed until opened by fire sound boards, paddles, fine cabinets • Spruce grouse eat needles • Squirrels, mice, many birds eat seeds • Seed (female) cones deep purple hanging catkins you’ll find on northern most noticeable type. When fertilized by content good for fence posts, rail ties, • Grow in brushy clusters of 10-20 from Cones • Fine reddish hairs on young twigs • Knobby scales with tipped spine FIELD NOTES • Common choice for pulpwood and growing upright deciduous trees are actually clusters of tiny, pollen, they develop seeds at the base of utility poles woody knobs • Cylindrical seed cones hang from upper • Nest tree for ruby-crowned kinglets, • Porcupines eat bark • Grows in mountains from 600 to 2,250 lumber palm warblers • Pollen (male) cones smaller, bluish greenish flowers without petals. Catkins are each scale. In the spring, when seeds are • Wood produces high heat when burned • Pale green when new in spring, blue- branches • Pine needles favoured by spruce grouse Bark metres either male or female flowers, not both. You’ll green in summer, yellow in fall, shed in • Dark grey to reddish-brown developing, you’ll usually find these small • Tannins from bark used for leather WILDLIFE USES • Longer than black spruce cones with • Snowshoe hares eat young seedlings • The NWT’s only true fir Bark know the male catkins in the spring when winter more even cone scales FIELD NOTES cones of various colours near the tips of tanning • Seeds a primary food of red squirrels • Cold, soggy, nutrient-poor sites • Flat scales their tips turn yellow with pollen. The female • Smooth, grey new growth. They turn green or purple as Cones • Chickadees, nuthatches and crossbills • Male pollen cones pale red • Older bark deeply grooved catkins produce the seeds, which often have • More tolerant of wet, muskeg habitats • Covered with resin blisters when young, they grow, brown when they are mature, WILDLIFE USES extract seeds from cones than white spruce long silky hairs or tiny wing-like casings that • Seeds eaten by red squirrels, and mice • Small (1-2 cm long), oval-round, Bark later becoming scaly and eventually, if they remain on the tree, with 4-5 rows of scales • Snowshoe hare, mice and voles feed on • Seeds usually not destroyed by fire help them disperse on the wind. and other rodents • Thin, scaly, light grey or brown grey. • Grow upright on branches seedlings because concentrated in crown • Seeds important for birds, such as red • Young twigs smooth and shiny, not hairy In some areas of the Northwest Territories, • Pollen cones (or male cones) are small • Spruce grouse depend heavily on needles • Postfire release of many seeds crossbills • Dark red in spring, turning leathery and like black spruce you might find a tree that has a puzzling promotes rapid colonization cones that appear at the base of new • Important habitat for great grey owls brown as they age combination of features of more than one growth in the spring, turn yellow as they • Porcupines strip outer bark to eat inner • May stay on the tree for several years species. This is possible because several produce pollen, then fall species of northern trees form hybrids where shortly afterwards. bark, killing trees Bark they occur together. Hybrids are the offspring You will only find • Thin, scaly, no ridges of two different species, and are common them in the • Grey to reddish-brown among closely related trees. They usually spring. have a mix of features from both parent trees.

Species.indd 1 11-05-15 5:18 PM PAPER BIRCH – TREMBLING ASPEN – tremuloides BALSAM POPLAR – – Salix species DWARF BIRCH – Betula glandulosa MOUNTAIN ALDER – Alnus crispa Birchbark is amazing stuff – light, flexible, strong, waterproof, easily peeled. For early If you walked from Mexico to the Beaufort Sea, chances are you’d spot a trembling You’d know the balsam poplar for sure if you lived back in early Roman days when this No matter where you are in the Northwest Territories, chances are you’ll find at If you compare this birch to its relative, the more stately Paper Birch, you’ll see where Alders always give back to the more than they take. They do this through an peoples of the boreal forest, it was a main building block of their culture. They ate off aspen along most of your journey. What makes this tree so wide-ranging is its tree ornamented public squares reserved for the masses. Hence the name, Populus, a least one kind of growing nearby. Nearly 50 different species grow across it gets the name “dwarf”. This birch is a bushy , not a tree, and rarely reaches amazing relationship with special bacteria that live on its roots and can pump nitrogen birchbark plates, stored supplies in birchbark baskets, rolled it into tubes and called adaptability. tree of the people. In the Northwest Territories stands of balsam poplar line the sunny the NWT, from the wettest , to the driest pine forest, to the coldest windswept two metres in height. It is most often only ankle-high to shoulder-high in the low out of the air and into the alder plant. Alders, in turn, provide the bacteria with starches moose to their death. They travelled the north’s many waterways in birchbark canoes. One of the aspen’s handiest adaptations is its ability to reproduce without putting a lot shores of our many and rivers. tundra. Willows are very hardy, very diverse, and very hard to tell apart. With careful tundra and boreal peat bogs where you’ll usually find it. In these places, nutrients and which they make through photosynthesis. Through this mutually-beneficial relationship, Ramble through a birch stand any time of year and enjoy its many personalities. In of energy into making seeds. They do this by growing a spreading mat of roots that Its other name, balsamifera, refers to the tree’s sweet-smelling resin or “balm” given observation and study, expert botanists may be able to distinguish different species; for summer warmth are in short supply. The Dwarf Birch has adapted to these conditions by each year mountain alders can add as much as over 60 kilograms of nitrogen per springtime, add a glistening, lime-green thatch to the forest. In summer their send up lots of stems or “suckers”. With good sunlight, a few trees can grow enough off by its leaves. Its buds too are fragrant. Squeeze one after the leaves drop in autumn, the rest of us, they are all “willow”. putting all its annual growth into the essentials for life: leaves and roots. Producing the hectare to the soil. By literally pumping nitrogen out of thin air, this aggressive pioneer leaves offer shade and an inviting bed to sleep on. In fall, they erupt into rivers of gold. suckers to populate an area the size of a football field. The resulting stand is not really a during a winter snowstorm, or in springtime as it is about to unfold. You’ll smell that Try this: Pick some willow buds in the spring, just when they start to turn green. wood that would allow it to grow tall is a luxury it can’t afford. species improves the fertility of our northern soils, which benefits the entire forest. And in winter, their supple, creamy columns help dispel the season’s harshness. group of individual trees but a colony of clones, all exact genetic replicas of each other. lovely perfume. Mixed in breathable pouches with rose petals and fragrant , Serve with milk and sugar, like cereal. You’ll have a healthy breakfast that is 7 – 10 balsam poplar buds are sold commercially to add an exotic scent to drawers full of times richer in vitamin C than an orange! clothing or keepsakes.

HUMAN USES FIELD NOTES HUMAN USES • Green chlorophyll in bark allows HUMAN USES FIELD NOTES HUMAN USES FROM A DISTANCE HUMAN USES FROM A DISTANCE HUMAN USES FROM A DISTANCE • Re-seeds aggressively after photosynthesis before leaves • Fast-growing, short-lived tree • Grow along streams, or where soil is • Bushy shrub with many woody branches, • Tall to medium shrub with spreading, Traditional Traditional Traditional Traditional moist Traditional Traditional • Lasts only one generation – about as • Cankers form dark, open wounds on • Quickly shaded out by other trees densely covered with leaves crooked stems and clumped crown • Bark for baskets, storage containers, • Tea from inner bark treats coughs trunks weakening or killing tree • Ashes used as cleanser for hair and hide • Twigs used for baskets, bows, looms for • One of the few woody to survive • Used by the Inuit for firewood on the • Wood used to smoke fish and meat long as a human life span – before being • Grows best in moist, rich, low-lying • Low-growing, often ground-hugging, mats, baby carriers, moose and bird clothing bead-weaving, sticks for roasting meat, in tundra tundra because of pleasant flavour it adds UP CLOSE replaced by shade-tolerant conifers • White powder from bark stops bleeding ground river valleys and flood plains especially on exposed sites where it may calls, torches, household utensils and of FROM A DISTANCE frames for drying pelts, pipes, whistles, • Just-unfolded dwarf birch leaves are • Hybridizes with many birch varieties, • Chewed leaves draw sting out of insect • Aromatic buds mixed with other • Range from ground-hugging mats, to form dense thickets • Bark contains anti-inflammatory salicin Leaves course, canoes • Small to medium deciduous tree up to • Fire stimulates production of extensive canoe ribs, emergency snowshoes, and sticky on the underside, and Inuit even bites ingredients to make animal traps dense knee-high thickets, to tall spindly • Hard but flexible wood good for hunting 20 m high suckers allowing rapid colonization hoops for Dene ring-toss game children have been known to stick them • Oval, relatively large leaf, shiny green • Strong and flexible wood for spears, • Bud resin for sore throats, coughs, trees UP CLOSE bows and snowshoes bows, arrows, snowshoes, sled runners • Wood carved into canoe paddles; large • Spreading branches form a rounded • Bark of older trees up to 10 cm thick at • Bark strips twisted to make cord for fish on their ears to make “earrings” above, slightly hairy below FROM A DISTANCE congestion, lung pain, rheumatism • Shrubs have multiple tall, straight, knots into bowls crown the base which improves fire protection net, rope, snares and dog collars Leaves • Bark used to make red-brown dye for • Edges finely double-toothed, less • S a p made into syrup and medicinal • Medium-sized deciduous tree flexible stems that sprout from the base caribou hides, snowshoes, and fish nets tonics • Ash from green wood mixed with caribou • Rotted wood burned for smoking hides; Commercial • Dark green above, somewhat paler taper-pointed than paper birch • Often multi-stemmed • Trunk relatively bare due to self-pruning Commercial • Largest balsam poplars in NWT found (fish have trouble seeing dark nets) fat to make lye soap green branches burned for smoking meat • No commercial uses below • Inuit traded with Dene for birch bark as twigs which drop in the fall • Veneer, plywood, lumber, pulpwood along the Liard River south of Nahanni • Slender trunk with narrow crown in UP CLOSE • Young catkins high in protein but not very Catkins tinder to start fires • Inner bark eaten as survival food Butte • Burned, powdered bark treats infected • Firm and leathery, with a shiny surface forests; wider spreading crowns in • Boxes, crates, shipping pallets tasty; good survival food (tastes like honeydew) UP CLOSE wounds and ulcers Leaves WILDLIFE USES • Small (1-4 cm long), round, with rounded • Clusters of cone-like catkins develop in openings • Firewood FROM A DISTANCE • Ptarmigan eat buds and catkins fall, hanging on long stalks Commercial Leaves • Bark and/or roots treat stomach • Long and narrow (vary in width), pointed teeth on margins Commercial Commercial • Short, fine fibres good for tissues and • Straight, cylindrical trunk at both ends • Small songbirds feed on insects attracted • Green, turning brown and woody at • Veneer, plywood, pulpwood UP CLOSE problems, relieve pain, promote healing, • Alternate • Little commercial value • Wood ignored by forestry industry until • Oval shaped, square at base with pointed other fine paper products • Sparse, stout branches rise to form an reduce fever to the catkins maturity • Firewood • Arranged alternately on the branch recently tip open crown • Bright red and orange in autumn • Wood from larger species of alder a Leaves • Disinfectant properties of buds still used • Tender inner bark is a traditional food • Contain tiny reddish seeds with a • Furniture, cabinetry • Leaf buds covered by a single smooth favourite choice for electric guitar bodies • Alternate, ovate, glossy, double-toothed • Now used to make pulp, fibreboard, • Edges finely round-toothed in health products to relieve congestion FIELD NOTES narrow wing scale • Found across most of the NWT in Catkins • Popular landscaping tree margins, strong veins, short stems and choptsticks • Leaves appear to “tremble” in the UP CLOSE Commercial low-arctic tundra and boreal forest • Female catkins short (12-25 mm long) WILDLIFE USES Bark slightest breeze due to flattened leaf WILDLIFE USES Leaves • Woven baskets and garden structures Catkins WILDLIFE USES stalk • Young bark and twigs eaten by moose, • A plant of spruce bogs and acidic rocks and plump, soft-textured, slightly hairy, • Snow-covered branches provide WILDLIFE USES Catkins • Individual trees have either male or • Smooth, reddish-brown or grey • Twigs and saplings browsed by moose, • Preferred food for beavers beaver, snowshoe hare, porcupine • Alternate, oval or broadly lance-shaped • Planted as a soil stabilizer for erosion erect on branch thermal cover for snowshoe hare • Spiky catkins appear before leaves • Turn bright yellow-orange, gold, or female catkins • Typical plant of the spruce forest floor snowshoe hare with finely toothed edges and pointy tip control • Seeds are small, winged, nearly flat • Marked with distinctive orange lenticels • Common browse for moose and reddish after the first frost • Buds eaten by small mammals, grouse, • Often found growing with willow and (horizontal pores for gas exchange) • Change from green to brown by fall, • Shiny green above and pale below • Appear in spring before the leaves nutlets FIELD NOTES • Porcupine and beaver eat bark releasing tiny oval seeds encased in bird- snowshoe hare ptarmigan other shrubs • Grows best in moist, nutrient-rich WILDLIFE USES • Male catkins often “furry” “pussy • M a n y small mammals and birds eat shaped wings Catkins • Male catkins hang from branch, and fall forests and beside streams and bogs FIELD NOTES Catkins • Essential food for moose, ptarmigan, willows” that open to show stamens • In exposed areas, forms dense thickets quickly after shedding pollen seeds, buds, catkins • Drooping catkins appear before leaves caribou, snowshoe hare, small rodents, pruned and molded by wind-driven snow • Springs up quickly after fire • Drooping catkins hang from branches in covered with red or yellow pollen • Often occurs in dense clumps • Seeds especially important for redpolls Bark • Produce small silk-tufted seeds carried on beaver, and bear with willows • Without fire, crowded out by more the spring Bark and chickadees • Saplings and twigs reddish-brown the wind for up to 30 km • Moose depend on willow shrublands for shade-tolerant conifers • Later burst into cottony parachutes Bark • New twigs have fine hairs • Cavity-nesting birds like woodpeckers, • Mature trees creamy white, smooth, with winter food and shelter • Dark brown, red, orange, green, yellow • Maze-like patterns on leaves from insect bearing small, tan seeds • Older woody stems dark grey to reddish- chickadees, swallows, boreal owls horizontal papery strips often curled at Bark • Thickets provide bedding and cover for pest, the aspen serpentine leafminer brown, “warty”, without hairs • Yellow-bellied sapsuckers drill rows of ends • On young trees, smooth, greenish-white Bark many species of wildlife with a waxy appearance holes to feed on birch sap and inner bark • Easily peeled in sheets • Young bark is thin, smooth, grayish • Becomes rough and furrowed with age • Grows thick, dark, and furrowed with age

Species.indd 2 11-05-15 5:19 PM