Picea pungens
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 Foliage and young cones
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| Picea pungens Engelm. |
Picea pungens (Colorado Blue Spruce or Blue Spruce) is a species of spruce native to western North America, from southeast Idaho and southwest Wyoming, south through Utah and Colorado to Arizona and New Mexico. It grows at high altitudes from 1,750-3,000 m altitude, though unlike Engelmann Spruce in the same area, it does not reach the alpine tree-line. It is most commonly found growing along streamsides in mountain valleys, where moisture levels in the soil are greater than the often low rainfall in the area would suggest. [1][2][3]
It is a medium-sized evergreen tree growing to 25-30 m tall, exceptionally to 46 m tall, and with a trunk diameter of up to 1.5 m. The bark is thin and scaly, flaking off in small circular plates 5-10 cm across. The crown is conic in young trees, becoming cylindric in older trees. The shoots are stout, orange-brown, usually glabrous, and with prominent pulvini. The leaves are needle-like, 15-30 mm long, stout, rhombic in cross-section, dull gray-green to bright glaucous blue (very variable from tree to tree in wild populations), with several lines of stomata; the tip is viciously sharp. [1][2][4]
The cones are pendulous, slender cylindrical, 6-11 cm long and 2 cm broad when closed, opening to 4 cm broad. They have thin, flexible scales 20-24 mm long, with a wavy margin. They are reddish to violet, maturing pale brown 5–7 months after pollination. The seeds are black, 3-4 mm long, with a slender, 10-13 mm long pale brown wing. [1][2]
Blue Spruce does not normally hybridize with other spruces, though hybrids with Engelmann Spruce have been found very rarely.[2]
The Blue Spruce is the State Tree of Utah and Colorado.[5]
[edit] Cultivation
The Blue Spruce, despite its limited natural range, is able to grow under a wide variety of conditions, and is considered highly desireable as a landscape plant due to the unusual blue-gray color of its foliage. It is widely and commonly cultivated throughout both North America and Europe.[6] One author listed it as appropriate for use in parks, gardens, and as a windbreak in the northeastern U.S., and as being tolerant to road salt.[7]
The American National Christmas Tree, located behind the White House at the center of the The Ellipse, is a Colorado Blue Spruce.[8]
[edit] References and external links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Picea pungens |
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Wikispecies has information related to: Picea pungens |
- ^ a b c Farjon, A. (1990). Pinaceae. Drawings and Descriptions of the Genera. Koeltz Scientific Books ISBN 3-87429-298-3.
- ^ a b c d Flora of North America: Picea pungens
- ^ Conifer Specialist Group (1998). Picea pungens. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 12 May 2006.
- ^ Gymnosperm Database: Picea pungens
- ^ http://www.usna.usda.gov/Gardens/collections/statetreeflower.html
- ^ "Non-wood forest products from conifers", United Nations Forestry Department, ISBN 104212, ch. 3, "Whole Trees", 1998.
- ^ John E. Kuser, Handbook of Urban and Community Forestry in the Northeast, Springer, 2000.
- ^ http://tgaw.wordpress.com/2009/04/17/arbor-day-colorado/
