Spruce (genus Picea) is a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal (taiga) regions of the earth.^[1]

WandloreEdit

Unskilled wandmakers call spruce a difficult wood, but in doing so they reveal their own ineptitude; it is quite true that it requires particular deftness to work with spruce, which produces wands that are ill-matched with cautious or nervous natures, becoming positively dangerous in fumbling fingers.^[2]

The spruce wand requires a firm hand, because it often appears to have its own ideas about what magic it ought to be called upon to produce. However, when a spruce wand meets its match - which, in my experience, is a bold spell-caster with a good sense of humour - it becomes a superb helper, intensely loyal to their owners and capable of producing particularly flamboyant and dramatic effects.^[2]

EtymologyEdit

The word "spruce" entered the English language from Old French pruce, the name of Prussia. Spruce was a generic term for commodities brought to England by Hanseatic merchants and the tree was believed to have come from Prussia. According to a different theory, some suggest that it may however be a direct loanword from a Polish expression drzewo/drewno z Prus which literally means "tree/timber from Prussia". That would suggest that the late mediaeval Polish-speaking merchants would import the timber to England and the English would pick up the expression from them.^[1]

AppearancesEdit

• Pottermore

Notes and referencesEdit