Trees of Nova Scotia (Part 6)

Hemlock (Softwood)

Although we now regard hemlock as an important lumber tree, early lumberman passed it by for more valuable white pine. Eastern hemlock is found from Nova Scotia westward to Minnesota and south to Tennessee.

While hemlock wood can be dressed for interior work, it most often used in rougher work such as bridge planks, sills, boxes and crates. Because this species retains its lower branches for many years, it wood is usually knotty. These knots probably contain the hardest wood of any eastern. They can nick an axe blade very easily. Hemlock is dangerous in camp fires, because it throws out more sparks than the wood of any other native conifer except perhaps cedar.

Early leather-makers leached hemlock bark for tannin, a dye and preservative. Indians poulticed sores and wounds with boiled and pounded inner bark. Settlers drank hemlock tea to induce sweating, and made brooms from the branch-lets

Elements of the Hemlock

Needles: Dark, shiny green and flattened, with two white lines below.

Cones: Similar to those of tamarack, but longer and not erect, pale green with slightly toothed scale margins, each fertile scale produces two winged seeds.

Bark: Reddish or greyish brown, changing with age from scaly or flaky to rough and deeply furrowed.

Wood: Buff with reddish tinge; tough ,splintery and fairly hard.

Trees of Nova Scotia (Part 5)

White Spruce (Softwood)

This species has North American range slightly exceeding that of tamarack, and is the third most plentiful of Nova Scotia's softwoods. White spruce is our fastest-growing spruce, thriving on the moist, well drained soil along streams and lakes, and common on sandy soils along the coast.

Pulpwood is it chief use, followed by lumber, boxes, crates, and general construction. Straightness of grain accounts for its use in organ pipes, and arrow shafts. Reforestation is another common use for this species.

The Indians dug its long pliable roots for sewing birch bark on canoes and for decorating baskets. To prepare the slender roots they steamed coils of them for an hour or so in hot wood ashes, then removed and split them. Just before use, the roots were soaked in hot water. Examples of such spruce-root handicrafts can be seen in museums such as the Halifax museum.

Although some people use white spruce for Christmas trees, its value is lowered by the rank odor. Moreover, like other spruces it quickly sheds its needles indoors unless the butt is placed in water.

Elements of the White Spruce

Needles: Four-cornered, long, sharp-pointed, blue-green, mounted spirally on little pegs and usually crowding toward upper side of twig.

Cones: Pendent, longer than those of red or black spruce.

Bark: Thin, scaly, ash-brown to silvery; inner bark streaked with rust-brown layers.

Wood: Nearly white to pale yellowish brown, with faint white dots, lightweight, soft, straight-grained.

Trees of Nova Scotia (Part 4)

Red Spruce (Softwood)

This is our most valuable lumber and pulpwood species. Other uses include general construction, boxes and crates (because it imparts no taste to foods) boat-building, and ladder stock (where cross-grained wood is unsafe). The wood is often sold with the other two spruces as "spruce". On good sites it grows to 28m (92') tall and 0.3/0.6m (1'-2') in diameter. Normally the trunk is straight and fairly free of dead branches.

After balsam fir, red spruce is the most common softwood in Nova Scotia. Predominating in all but the Cape Breton uplands, and in western Nova Scotia. Nova Scotia's cool, moist climate ideal for the spruce, which also thrives in Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and the New England States, and ranges south in scattered pockets through the Appalachians to Tennessee.

The small branches make a good , springy mat to place under balsam fir boughs when making a camp bed or survival shelter. (Place the spruce under-side up, the fir face up)

Elements of the Red Spruce

Needles: Four-cornered, long, bright yellow-green, sharp-pointed, attached to tiny pegs. (part of the twig, not of the needle as in fir and hemlock)

Cones: Pendent, green to purplish-green in September, turning reddish brown and opening the first autumn to release two winged seeds per fertile scale, falling in winter. Cone scale edges nearly smooth.

Bark: Finely scaly, thin, reddish brown; inner black brownish yellow.

Wood: Nearly white to pale yellowish brown, lightweight, straight-grained, fairly strong, grain slightly more pronounced than in white or black spruce.

Trees of Nova Scotia (Part 3)

Tamarack (Softwood)

Tamarack is unique among native conifers in that each fall it sheds its foliage like the hardwoods. It also ranges more widely than most North American conifers, being found from Newfoundland and Labrador to the interior of Alaska. Its northern limits follow Hudson's Bay and the tree line; southward it reaches into the Lake States. In Nova Scotia it is found throughout; but never abundantly.

A fast-growing tree that tolerates no shade, this species is often forced by shade-tolerant species to inhabit poor open sites such as peat bogs and swamps. Rabbits like the needles, and ruffed grouse and other birds eat the seeds. The branchlets are sometimes browsed by deer. Porcupines seem to prefer its bark to that of most other softwoods species.

Boatbuilders still use tamarack to make the curved bow piece that fastens to the keel to receive the forward planking; here strength is essential. But today tamarack is cut chiefly for fence posts, poles, and ties. The wood is said to last over 15 years underground without preservatives. Most softwood posts rot within 3 years. As a fuel wood its gives off great heat but the creosote content are hard on stoves and stove pipes.



Elements of the Tamarack

Needles: Soft, blue green (turning gold/yellow in the autumn) ; in clusters of 12 to 30 needles on older twigs, but singly on new shoots.

Cones: Upwright, short-stalked, thin scaled, light brown, resembling a miniature, oblong rose; opening the first fall to drop seeds, falling the second season; bearing two winged seeds per fertile scale.

Bark: Thin, in young trees a smooth bluish-grey, later red-brown and roughened by fine scales.

Wood: The heaviest and hardest of native softwoods; white to yellow-brown and more or less oily.

Trees of Nova Scotia (Part 2)

Red Pine (Soft Wood)

Red pine is only a scattered tree in Nova Scotia, being found mainly in sandy and rocky soils on the lowlands of Colchester and Cumberland Counties, and in northern Queens and southern Annapolis Counties. The Natural range of red pine centers on the Great Lakes, but extends from Newfoundland (a few pockets) to southeast Manitoba. It is found both in pure stands and mixed with white or Jack pine. Jack pine tends to replace it after clear cutting or forest fire, unless special measures are taken to encourage the red pine seedlings ; so this useful species may in time become scarcer.

The sturdy wood and ease of rot-proofing make it ideal for wharfs and bridge pilings, hydro poles, and the like. It is also valued for reforestation, since it plants well and grows rapidly. Most pine species are susceptible to attack by fungus, especially young plantations of red pine and jack pine in frost-probe areas.


Elements of the Red Pine

Needles: The needles are in pairs of 2 and they are long, dark, yellow green in color and not twisted as in Jack pine.

Cones: Oval in shape and maturing in two years, they are much smaller then their white pine counter part. When the cones are mature they will be hanging and chestnut brown, and will open to release their winged seeds.

Bark: Orange-brown and flaky on the young trees, later breaking into flat red-brown plates.

Wood: Yellowish to reddish with a pronounced grain. Lightweight, straight-grained, heavier and harder than white pine; takes creosote very well, has fine dots in growth rings.

Trees of Nova Scotia (Part 1)

White Pine (Soft Wood)

This tallest and most stately of eastern softwoods has been prized in Nova Scotia since long before Halifax was founded. After the first sawmilling rig was set up near Riverport in Lunenburg County around 1632, white pine was eagerly sought and cut first for home construction, and later for shipbuilding and export.

This native of the Appalachian and Great Lakes regions is found throughout Nova Scotia,but is most common in the western half. Formerly its best development was on sandy or gravelly soils in Shelburne, Cumberland and North Colchester Counties, and in Annapolis Valley.

It grows in pure stand or mixed with red spruce, hemlock, yellow birch and sugar maple. Although white pine grows largest in such mixtures , up to 1.2 m (4 feet) across and 30 m (100 feet) tall, it is found also on bogs with black spruce and tamarack, and on dry sandy ridges with jack and red pine, probably as a result of forest fires.

White-tailed deer eat the needles and twigs, and red squirrels and crossbills extract the large seeds from the pine cones.

Elements of The White Pine

Needles: On older twigs the needles are in bundles of 5 (think of W-H-I-T-E), and grow singly on new shoots. The needles can grow as long as 3 to 5 inches long and are slender, soft and with a blue-green color

Cones: The cones tend to be longer than of other native pines and are cigar shaped when closed. The scales are thin bearing two 1/4" winged brown seeds that ripen in September.

Bark: On young trees their bark tends to be smooth, dark green or brown-tinged and somewhat fir-like but without resin blisters.

Wood: Highly prized for interior finish. Straight-grained, even-textured, durable, light weight; taking nails, planing and painting very well. The sap of the tree has a creamy white texture and look, with the heartwood being a pinkish color with a distinctly fragrant.