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Common Name: Blue Spruce
Family:
Pinaceae
Branches
Entry Author: K. Rice
Description: Straight trunk with broadly conic crown.
Needles: Sharp and extending at right angles with a dull dark green to blue-green color.
Cones: 3 in. long with narrow scales.
Bark: Gray-brown.
Branching Pattern: Branches slightly to strongly drooping; twigs not pendent, stout, yellow-brown, usually glabrous.
Height: 70-90 Ft.
Life Span: Maximum ages of 600 years.
Zone: 3 to 7
Conditions/Habitat/Kind of Forest: Has the ability to withstand drought and extremes of temperatures.
Range: USA: Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona.
Ecological Interactions: Known to appeal to birds, mammals, butterflies and other beneficial insects, and they will meet one or more of an animal's basic needs.
Conservation Status-US/ World Wide: Low risk of becoming endangered.
Uses (Human): Thanks to its cold hardiness and waxy foliage, which assumes a distinct blue hue in some cultivars, this is among the most widely planted ornamental spruces.
References:
Gymnosperm Database, University of Bonn
http://www.botanik.uni-bonn.de/conifers/pi/pic/pungens.htm
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
http://www.iucnredlist.org/
University of Delaware Botanic Gardens, Picea pungens
http://ag.udel.edu/udbg/conifers/descriptions/p_pungens.html
Harlow, William M., Harrar, Ellwood S., and
White, Fred M. (1979). Textbook of Dendrology Covering the Important
Forest Trees of the United States and Canada. New York. McGraw-Hill
Book Company.