| The Sitka Spruce (Picea sitchensis) is a large coniferous evergreen tree growing to 50–70 m tall, exceptionally to 100 m tall, and with a trunk diameter of up to 5 m, exceptionally to 6–7 m diameter. It is by far the largest species of spruce, and the third tallest conifer species in the world (after Coast Redwood and Coast Douglas-fir). Also, the fourth largest conifer (behind Giant Sequia, Coast Redwood and Western Red Cedar). It acquires its name from the community of Sitka, Alaska.
The bark is thin and scaly, flaking off in small circular plates 5–20 cm across. The crown is broad conic in young trees, becoming cylindric in older trees; old trees may have no branches in the lowest 30–40 m. The shoots are very pale buff-brown, almost white, and glabrous (hairless) but with prominent pulvini. The leaves are stiff, sharp and needle-like, 15–25 mm long, flattened in cross-section, dark glaucous blue-green above with two or three thin lines of stomata, and blue-white below with two dense bands of stomata.
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