Crown architecture and stemwood production in Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.)

The morphological data for Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.) trees published by Burger (1953) were reanalyzed to examine the relationships between crown shape, needle and branch mass density of crown volume, needle efficiency in stemwood production, harvest index and stemwood production efficiency per unit of crown projected area. Production of stemwood per unit of crown projected area was higher in narrow-crowned trees than in broad-crowned trees because the narrow-crowned trees had (i) smaller horizontal space requirements for equal crown volumes, (ii) higher leaf area index due to both the geometrical crown shape and higher needle density per unit of crown volume, and (iii) higher harvest index indicating high allocation of dry matter production to stem.