Flora of North America species comparison

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Picea engelmannii

Picea sitchensis

Engelmann spruce, Engelmann's spruce, pino real, épinette d'Engelmann

Sitka spruce, épinette de Sitka
Habit Trees to 80m; trunk to 5m diam.; crown narrowly conic.
Bark

grayish brown to orange-brown.
Branches

somewhat drooping;

twigs not pendent, rather stout, pinkish brown, glabrous.
Buds

reddish brown, 5–10mm, apex rounded.
Leaves

(1.2–)1.5–2.5(–3)cm, flattened or broadly triangular in cross section (abaxial surface rounded or slightly angular), rather rigid, blue-green to light yellow-green, abaxial surface darker green with stomatal bands very narrow or absent, adaxial surface glaucous with conspicuous stomatal bands separated by ridge, apex sharp-pointed.
Seed

cones 5–9(–10)cm;

scales variable, elliptic to narrowly diamond-shaped, 15–22 × 12–16mm, rather rigid, margin at apex erose, apex extending 4–8mm beyond seed-wing impression.
2n

=24.

Picea engelmannii

Picea sitchensis
Habitat Pacific coastal forests
Elevation 0–900m (0–3000ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AZ; CA; CO; ID; MT; NM; NV; OR; UT; WA; WY; AB; BC; Mexico
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[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AK; CA; OR; WA; BC
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[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Varieties 2 (1 in the flora).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Picea sitchensis intergrades extensively with P. glauca in the river inlets of north coastal British Columbia and coastal Alaska. The name P. × lutzii Little is applied to hybrids between the two species (R.Daubenmire 1968).

Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis) is the state tree of Alaska.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 2. FNA vol. 2.
Parent taxa Pinaceae > Picea Pinaceae > Picea
Sibling taxa
P. abies, P. breweriana, P. glauca, P. mariana, P. pungens, P. rubens, P. sitchensis
P. abies, P. breweriana, P. engelmannii, P. glauca, P. mariana, P. pungens, P. rubens
Subordinate taxa
P. engelmannii var. engelmannii
Synonyms Pinus sitchensis, Abies falcata, Abies menziesii, P. falcata, P. menziesii, Pinus menziesii
Name authority Engelmann: Trans. Acad. Sci. St. Louis 2: 212. (1863) (Bongard) Carrière
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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(If the plant you're looking for doesn't show up in the auto-complete list, that means it either isn't described in Flora of North America yet, or it's listed under a synonym. And please note that Flora of North America is still missing several plant families, including Apiaceae, Boraginaceae, and Polemoniaceae.)

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