Picea omorika
Common name: Serbian spruce
Picea omorika: Once you’ve seen this spruce, its image will stay with you forever. ‘Omorika’ is the Serbian word for spruce and also symbolizes slenderness in Bosnian and Serbian folklore. This is a distinctive tree with a slender, pyramidal habit. It has attractive needles with two white stomatal lines on the lower side, which lightens the tree. It is native to the limestone mountains of Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina but in recent years has been suffering from forest tree competition together with climate warming - as well as fire impact from the 19th century and poor regeneration. Sounds bad and it is. Serbian spruce has become an endangered species. But somehow I feel it is going to make it.
It was a tree of the month.
Text and photos by Hughie Jones