Christmas is just around the corner! It’s a joyful season, perfect for indulging in festive meals. A time to wonder why all the chests in your storage have turned into gifts. This week’s featured block is spruce wood.
The spruce, introduced in Beta 1.2 back in January 2011, is one of six tree types found in Minecraft (the others being oak, birch, jungle, acacia, and dark oak). It thrives in the colder biomes of the game, primarily in taiga but also occasionally in hills, enhanced taiga, cold taiga, and mega taiga.
The textures of spruce are somewhat reminiscent of a darker version of oak, yet you can easily spot the differences as spruce trees lack branches and do not drop apples. In fact, there are numerous varieties of spruce in MCPE—from small ones comparable in height to oaks to towering giants with a 2×2 trunk that reach impressive heights.
If forestry isn’t your thing, you can gather spruce wood from witch huts, taiga villages, or bonus chests if you opted for that option when creating your world in Minecraft Pocket Edition. Why not? It’s free after all!
You can craft anything from spruce that you would typically make from oak and other woods—mainly planks and bark. It can also be smelted into charcoal in a furnace, yielding 1.5 units per block when used as fuel.
In the real world, there are 35 different species of spruce, most of which thrive in the frigid regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The spruce can grow up to 60 meters tall and features thin needles instead of leaves, which remain intact even during winter.
These needles aid the tree’s survival—they retain more water than regular leaves, resist ice and snow, capture sunlight year-round, and are less palatable to insects.
The English name for spruce has its roots in Polish. During the late Middle Ages, traders from Prussia (now part of Poland) brought many of these trees to England, leading to their designation as “z Prus,” meaning “from Prussia.” Today, spruce is primarily utilized in construction due to its strength and abundance. Additionally, it plays a role in the paper industry and the crafting of various musical instruments. And of course, Christmas trees are predominantly spruces.
Here’s an interesting tidbit: spruce needles are actually rich in vitamin C, so you can brew them into tea to ward off scurvy in areas where fresh fruits and vegetables are scarce. Tea is fantastic! Why hasn’t the community added tea to Minecraft PE? They should definitely include tea in MCPE.
