Sitka spruce

(Picea sitchensis)

If you’ve ever brushed the needles of an evergreen with your arm, you thought, ‘blimey, that was sharper than I was expecting!’, then it was probably a Sitka spruce. And these forests change quickly. The species can grow up to 1.5m per year, meaning a plantation of saplings could resemble a thick mature forest in just a few years.

KEY FEATURES: Sharp and short needles with dome-shaped cones that hang downwards. WHERE TO SEE IT: Widespread throughout the UK, but there’s no better place to see it than Kielder Forest in Northumberland, where different stages of growth are visible in different sections of the forest.