Spruce is beautiful on New Year's holidays, when it is installed in the house, decorating with toys and garlands. But in nature, spruce is no less good and elegant when it enters the season of flowering.
Few know that spruce can bloom. After all, this happens in the wilderness, closer to the end of spring. There is no snow at this time for a long time, so skiers do not wander into the forest, and it is too early to go for mushrooms and berries. Perhaps only a few hunters, foresters and wild animals can observe this amazing beauty.
The magical bloom of spruce
On the dark green fluffy branches, bright ruby lights, reminiscent of New Year's candles, seem to flash. This is how dazzlingly beautiful female spruce inflorescences look. True, they are very small, a little larger than a hazelnut. If you look closely at the branches, you can see much less noticeable, no more than a pea, male inflorescences.
Of course, from a botanical point of view, spruce does not bloom. Nevertheless, at the household level, the process taking place with it can be called flowering. Blooming fir trees in the dark coniferous forest are truly a fabulously beautiful sight.
I must say that spruce blooms very rarely. The beginning of flowering occurs in them only in the 25-30th year of life. Spruces are forest centenarians; nature has let them go for almost 500 years. During this time, they reach up to 50 m in height, but bloom and bear fruit only about 30 times. Not every type of spruce blooms so brightly and catchy. While some have bright crimson inflorescences, others have an orange or pale yellow color. Flowering lasts a little more than a week, then the inflorescences turn into cones. It should be noted that the cones are not at all the fruits of ate, as many think, but just modified shoots.
The spruce cones can be used to predict the weather. Before the onset of a clear sunny day, the cones seem to open up, and before the rain they tightly press their scales against each other.
Singing tree
In winter, Christmas trees sometimes bring people a holiday, by their mere presence creating a magical New Year's atmosphere, but they have other opportunities to cheer up. After all, it is thanks to them that funny or gentle lyrical melodies sound on holidays. The fact is that most musical instruments are made from spruce wood: pianos, violins, guitars, balalaikas. For this, the spruce received the nickname "singing tree".
The forest beauty-spruce brings people a lot of joy, benefit and goodness, and therefore they lead round dances around her, singing New Year's songs dedicated to her. The only pity is that few people manage to see her wonderful bloom.
