Picea glauca ‘Conica’

Dwarf Alberta Spruce

 

Masonic Village Arboretum, 1 Masonic Drive, Elizabethtown PA (near formal gardens)

 

Len Eiserer

 

Big tree enthusiasts don’t usually in- clude dwarf species in their area of focus, and it might seem a contradict- ion to do so. That said, the Pennsyl- vania champion Dwarf Alberta Spruce is almost certainly at Masonic Village. In 2018 this Lilliputian giant was almost 18 feet tall with a trunk circumference (at 2 feet high) of about 50 inches and a spread of about 12 feet.

 

As is often the case with older speci- mens of ‘Conica’, this individual is also “reverting” by developing normal adult foliage that grows faster than the tree’s otherwise slow-growing juvenile foliage (see the tree's upper right in the first photo, and upper left in the second photo).  For an explanation of genetic reversion, see the Dwarf Al- berta Spruce entry for Arbor Harbor.

 

This amazing species (i.e., White Spruce) has roots whose growth pat- terns are highly adaptable rather than genetically fixed, and which vary ac- cording to soil moisture, soil fertility, and mechanical impedance.