230 TREES IN WINTER 



BLUE SPRUCE 

 Colorado Blue Spruce, Silver Spruce. 



Picea Menziesii Engelm. 

 P. Parry ana (Andre) Sarg. ; P. pungens Engelm. 



HABIT — A tree reaching in Colorado a height of 100 ft. and a trunk 

 diameter of 2-3 ft., muchsmaller in cultivation; branches rigid, horizon- 

 tal with short, stout, stiff, lateral branchlets arranged in horizontal 

 planes giving a layered effect to the tree, especially in the young 

 stages; older trees becoming less regular with a thin, ragged, pyramidal 

 crown; foliage bluish-green to silvery-white or rarely dull green. 



BARK — Grayish-brown, scaly, becoming deeply ridged toward the 

 base. 



TW^IGS — Bright yellowish to reddish-brown, smooth. 



LEAF-SCARS — Alternate, more than 2-ranked, on strongly projecting 

 decurrent ridges of the bark. BUNDLE-SCARS — single. 



LEAVES — Bluish-green to silvery-white or rarely dull green, 4-angled, 

 25-30 mm. long on sterile branches, often not over half as long on 

 fruiting branches, stout, stiff, sharp-pointed, incurved, without proper 

 leaf-stalks, with a pungent somewhat disagreeable odor when bruised, 



BUDS — Ovate, blunt-pointed, light brown. 



FRUIT — Oblong-cylindrical cones 2i/^ to 4 inches long, generally not 

 remaining on the tree after the second winter. SCALES — thin, distinctly 

 longer than broad with narrowed, flexible, ragged, blunt tips. 



COMPARISONS — The Blue Spruce as cultivated as an ornamental tree 

 is strikingly distinct from other Spruces in its bluish-green or silvery 

 foliage and the horizontally layered arrangement of its branchlets. The 

 long stiff sharp-pointed needles and the narrowed elongated scales of 

 the large cones are further characteristic. 



DISTRIBUTION — Along or near streams. Colorado and eastern Utah, 

 northward to the Wind river mountains of Wyoming. Often planted as 

 an ornamental tree in the eastern and northern states and also in 

 Europe, especially individuals with blue foliage. 



W^OOD — Light, soft, close-grained, weak, pale brown, or often nearly 

 white with hardly distinguishable sapwood. 



