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Picea sitchensis (Bong.) Carrière, Sitka Spruce

Account Summary

Introduced, neophyte, rare but much ignored and under-recorded.

1986; Waterman, T. & Brain, P.J.T.; lakeshore woods at Knocknabrass Td to Doohat Td, Upper Lough Erne.

June to August.

Self-sown and naturalised frequently throughout B & I (Stace 1997), or deliberately planted, but again as with other introduced conifers, very often ignored by field botanists including those in Fermanagh even though in these islands it is the tree planted in numbers greater than all the others combined! In forestry plantations, it outgrows and out-yields every other tree species on vast tracts of poor, degraded wet mountain sites. It is also one of only three tree species to exceed 60 m in height in the British Isles (so far, we might add, since some introduced species are still too young to have made this sort of growth) (Mitchell 1996).

Fermanagh recorded occurrences

In Fermanagh, it has been recorded so far in just 21 tetrads in woods and lakeshores on islands in Upper Lough Erne and thinly scattered in the near vicinity of obvious plantation woods from which seed must have originated. As the distribution map shows, most of these plantations lie close to the county boundary. The other record details are: Inishleague Island (West), 17 June 1987, R.S. Weyl & Mrs J. Whatmough; Inishlught Island, 1987, R.J. Bleakley; Glen Wood, Florencecourt, 1990, D.M. Smith, W. McKenna & Ms J. McConnell; Cornagague Lough, 1991, W. McKenna & Ms J. McConnell; Knocks Td, ENE of Lisnaskea, 1995, RHN & RSF; 1 km E of Eshcarcoge Td, August 1995, RHN & RSF; shore at plantation, 1.5 km NW of Garrison, July 1996, EHS Habitat Survey Team. RHN & HJN added six more records in autumn 2010 as follows: Cashel Crossroads; N of Rotten Mountain bridge; Meenawanick NE of Brickagh; SW of Tonymore; Corraleek SE of Garrane; and Tullykeeran Td, Pettigo Plateau.

Names

'Picea’ is the classical Latin name of the genus and is derived from the Latin 'pix' meaning 'pitch', a reference to the resin obtained from the tree

(Hyam & Pankhurst 1995). The specific epithet 'sitchensis', means 'of Sitka', geographical reference to a borough and city in Alaska, NW America.

Uses

Although popularly denigrated and even vilified by "the undiscerning public" and "green conservationists", as creating, "huge sterile blocks of alien conifers blanketing the beautiful moors in ugly rows of uniform dark green", Mitchell (1996, p. 91), from whom these are quotes are taken, puts up a strong case for the virtues of Sitka Spruce, especially in terms of the many species of birds it supports.

Threats

Sitka Spruce is another species susceptible to the cankerous killer disease caused by the readily transmitted fungal pathogen Phytophthora ramosum which is currently spreading in Britain and Ireland.