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Glite Dictionary
Picea abies

Picea abies

9.3
A tall evergreen tree with a pyramid shape, dark green needles and long hanging cones
  • noun
  • Specialized
translation icon : Picea abies
  • The majestic Picea abies towers over many European forests, providing habitat for numerous bird species.

Examples

  • Many Christmas trees sold in Europe are actually Picea abies due to their symmetrical shape.

  • Botanists collected samples from a centuries-old Picea abies to study its growth rings.

  • The Picea abies is commonly used as a Christmas tree.

  • Many gardeners prefer Picea abies for its beautiful shape.

  • Many Christmas trees sold in Europe are actually Picea abies due to their symmetrical shape.

  • Botanists collected samples from a centuries-old Picea abies to study its growth rings.

  • The majestic Picea abies towers over many European forests, providing habitat for numerous bird species.

Synonyms

Norway spruce
vsPicea abies
1 5.9

A tall evergreen tree with dark green needles and hanging cones

is the formal scientific name for that same species

Surface Forms

Picea abies singular
Picea abieses plural

Morphology

Picea + Abies

This is a Latin binomial: knowing 'Picea' (the genus of spruces) allows a learner to infer that the term refers to a type of spruce tree, so part of the meaning is recoverable from the first constituent. However, species epithets (the second element) are not compositional lexical items in normal English and require knowledge of taxonomic naming conventions, so the full, specific meaning ('Norway spruce') is not fully predictable to a B1 learner.

Etymology

Picea abies gets its name from old Latin words that describe the tree. Picea refers to 'sap' and abies means 'fir', so the name gives the simple picture of a dark, sticky-sap, fir-like tree, the Norway spruce we know today.