Flora of North America species comparison

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Picea pungens

blue spruce, Colorado blue spruce, pino real, épinette bleue
Habit Trees to 50m; trunk to 1.5m diam.; crown broadly conic.
Bark

gray-brown.
Branches

slightly to strongly drooping;

twigs not pendent, stout, yellow-brown, usually glabrous.
Buds

dark orange-brown, 6–12mm, apex rounded to acute.
Leaves

1.6–3cm, 4-angled in cross section, rigid, blue-green, bearing stomates on all surfaces, apex spine-tipped.
Seed

cones (5–)6–11(–12)cm;

scales elliptic to diamond-shaped, widest below middle, 15–22 × 10–15mm, rather stiff, margin at apex erose, apex extending 8–10mm beyond seed-wing impression.
2n

=24.

Picea pungens
Habitat Midmontane forests
Elevation 1800–3000m (5900–9800ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AZ; CO; ID; NM; UT; WY
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Limited hybridization occurs between Picea pungens and P. engelmannii (R.Daubenmire 1972; R.J. Taylor et al. 1975).

Blue spruce (Picea pungens) is the state tree of Colorado (as Colorado blue spruce) and Utah.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 2.
Parent taxa Pinaceae > Picea
Sibling taxa
P. abies, P. breweriana, P. engelmannii, P. glauca, P. mariana, P. rubens, P. sitchensis
Synonyms P. parryana
Name authority Engelmann: Gard. Chron. n. s. 11: 334. (1879)
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 Fabaceae, Apiaceae, Boraginaceae, and Polemoniaceae.)

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