Hazel spruce

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The hazel spruce is a growth form of the common spruce ( Picea abies ) that occurs in the Alps , the Bavarian Forest and the Bohemian Forest .

In Austria, knowledge of the hazel spruce as tonewood was recognized by UNESCO as an intangible cultural heritage in 2011 .

To the hazel growth of the spruce

The annual rings of these trees are narrow and interlocked. What causes this special growth form has not been clarified beyond doubt. It is probably a genetic variant of the Norway spruce, with one or more genes responsible for the characteristic growth. Characteristic features are longitudinal grooves and crossed grooves on the lateral surface of the trunk. To clearly identify a tree, a piece of bark is removed. If there is a characteristic longitudinal rolling of the wood grain, it is a hazel spruce. There is a red and a green cone shape.

Probably because the slightly wavy annual rings and very small, brown inclusions in the grain are reminiscent of hazelnut wood, the common name "hazel spruce" has come about : the wood of the common hazel ( Corylus avellana ) usually has weak grooves on the wood surface, which can be found but no toothing in the cross-section. In Switzerland we speak of hailwood, tonewood, agehood, aggewood, agigs wood, glismets wood, hail-slaying wood, cat-tread wood, dealers, mandli wood, male wood, male wood, white fir-bark hail wood, shingle fir, bird-tread wood.

Use as tonewood

The very fine-grained wood shows very good resonance behavior and is used as tonewood (tonewood), preferably in musical instrument making , in particular for making string instruments such as violin and viola , guitars , harps , tone boards and alphorns .

A famous occurrence of hazel spruce is in the Foresta dei violini ('violin forest') in the Dolomites , where the most important violin maker, Antonio Stradivari , selected and bought the best trunks in the 17th century. The Latemar Forest in South Tyrol is also known for its hazel trees.

Well-known local occurrences are also found in the mountain forest above Ramingstein in Salzburg's Lungau and various valleys in North Tyrol , such as the Pitztal and Ausserfern . The Forum Haselfichte association was founded in Tyrol in 2003 , in which forest officials, scientists, instrument makers, but also sculptors, architects and other interested parties try to collect ancient knowledge about the hazel spruce, to record its occurrence, to protect it from careless felling and to sustain it maintain and process the wood especially for those interested. At the instigation of this association, the Austrian Commission for UNESCO included the tradition of knowledge about hazel spruce as tonewood in the register of the national intangible cultural heritage in Austria in the section on knowledge and practices in dealing with nature. The purpose of this designation is binding protection as a living cultural tradition. So far it has only been shown for Tyrol.

See also

literature

Web links

proof

  1. ^ Paul Rüegsegger: The hazel spruce - sought-after wood for instrument making. waldwissen.net, 2009. Accessed April 16, 2018.
  2. ↑ a b Austrian folk dance movement. Austrian Commission for UNESCO: List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Austria. immaterielleskulturerbe.unesco.at (accessed March 31, 2016).
  3. ↑ a b Lungau tonewood is popular with violin makers. Salzburg Today, April 30, 2011 (online article).
  4. ↑ Interview "La Pagina da Surmeir". Questions to Beat Kollegger from Peder Antona Baltermia. In: Swiss musical instrument maker brochure ( reproduced on musik-kollegger.ch ).
  5. ↑ Alexandra Wauer: With her voice magic sound ... Paneveggio - A forest full of violins . in LWF aktuell 60/2007 (PDF file, lwf.bayern.de, accessed on April 16, 2018).