Conifer Trees

Pine, Spruce, Fir

Pete Kooshian
February 05, 2024

Spruce

There aren’t a lot of things to find in the wild during the cold winter months, but I’ll try to list a few more before the spring comes. Today we’re talking about conifer trees.

Scientific Name: Picea sp., Abies sp., Pinus sp.

Preferred Habitat: Evergreen forests, poor soils, acidic soils, and various conditions.

Edible Parts: Needles, cones, pollen

Distribution: There are members of the pine, fir, and spruce genera in nearly every part of North America and many other parts of the world.

Harvest Season: Most people harvest parts of conifer trees in the late winter or early spring, but they can be harvested from year-round.

Key Identifiers: Spiny needles instead of leaves that create a “shaggy” or “fuzzy” appearance, the presence of cones.

Toxic Look-Alikes: There actually ARE very dangerous conifers that exist. The only one I know of is the yew tree which is quite deadly. As long as you know how to identify the right conifers, you will be fine. (More on that below).

Nutrition:

Since this is a much broader range of species than I normally cover, I can’t give any exact numbers, but I can tell you the common health benefits of many conifer species:

Spruce tips are an excellent source of vitamin C.
Conifers in general are antimicrobial, and antibacterial.
Pine needles can help moderate allergies.
Conifers have various cancer-fighting properties.
Spruce contains a lot of potassium and magnesium.
Fir has respiratory properties.
Conifers tend to have tonic qualities (they help detoxify the body).

Pine needles

Conifer Identification

There are three main conifers to identify and use: spruce, pine, and fir.

Others such as yew should be cautiously avoided.

Here are some identifying marks:

Pine:

Pine trees usually have long wispy needles that grow in small clusters of 2-5. They also have plate-like bark that grows in large peely scales and sticky resin that drips from the trees. There are tons of pine species in the US, so be sure to research the ones in your local area!

Pine species in Michigan include P. strobus, P. ponderosa, P. rigida, P. resinosa, P. nigra, P. banksiana, and P. sylvestris.

Spruce:

Spruce have much shorter needles (the top picture of this article is a spruce) that have a square-ish feel when you roll one between two fingers. From a distance they tend to look “fluffier” than pine. Once again, multiple species of spruce exist in the US so research what species grow in your area.

Spruce species in Michigan include P. abies, P. glauca, P. mariana, and P. pungens.

Fir:

Fir trees look almost exactly like spruce except that their needles are flat and don’t roll between fingers very easily.

Fir species in Michigan include A. balsamea, and A. concolor.

Hemlock tree

Hemlock:

It is very important to note that the hemlock tree is NOT the same as the poison hemlock plant. The tree is not related at all to the plant and actually gets its name from the scent of the needles not because it’s similar to poison hemlock.

Hemlock trees tend to have flatter needles that are arranged in a sort of “flat” layout along the branches (see above picture). While I have heard of some people using hemlock trees in similar ways to other conifers, I have no experience in this area so I can’t tell you much. Research this on your own, they are definitely common trees!

Yew:

YEW IS VERY DEADLY! All parts of the plant are fatally toxic, especially the seed within the fruits which is the most toxic part of the plant. The only safe part is the flesh around the berries (which you can remove from around the pit) but I promise you it’s not worth trying. The berries are very bland and watery, and the risk is much too high to be attempting that.

Yew has dark needles and grow mostly as shrubs. They are common landscaping plants and for some reason are common in parks. (I personally would never plant these anywhere children would be present).

I have also read that even the pollen from these plants (which can pass through window screens) can make you somewhat sick. I would personally just remove them from any landscape and replace them with something safe and edible or at least beautiful!

Yew berries

More yew

Conifer needles have a range of uses. They can be used to make into infused oils, cocktail garnishes (which I have done), syrups (my brother made spruce syrup this year), fermentation, soaps, cough medicine, tinctures, and teas.

I have seen other people use the pollen as a flour substitute before (which I have yet to try) and even grind up pine bark to use as a supplement powder (which is very high in vitamin C) but I don’t recommend doing this unless the tree would otherwise be cut down. It can cause severe damage to the tree so use your judgement.

Conifers can also produce edible pine nuts, although there are few pine trees that are worth harvesting from. Part of the reason pine nuts are so expensive is because it is very labor intensive, and my understanding is that they all need to be harvested by hand.

Note: Juniper is another edible conifer tree which I wrote an entire article about HERE!