The common spruce (Picea abies) has its own characteristics which distinguish it from the white fir with which it could be confused. The orientation of its cones is different : they hang under the twigs in the spruce while those of the fir stand erect. Its needles, which grow all around the twigs, have only one point at their end and sting to the touch, unlike those of the fir. Over time, its reddish-brown bark, finely scaled in its early years, cracks into thick brown-gray scales which detach from the trunk in irregular chunks.