364: NEW ENGLAND TISEES IX 'VVIXTER. 



BLUE SPRUCE 

 Colorado Blue Spruce, Silver Spruce. 



Picea ilenziesii Engelm. 

 F. Parryona i Andre) Sarg-. : P. pungens Engelm. 



HABIT — A tree rea.liing- in Colorado a height of 100 ft. and a trunk 

 diameter "t '2-'^~ ft., mtiili smaller in etili ix'ation : branches rigid, horizon- 

 tal witli .^hiirt. sttout. ?lift', lateral branchlets arranged in horizontal 

 planes gi\"ing a la\"ered effect to the tree, esi^ecially in the young 

 stages: older trees beLuming less regular with a thin, rag'geil p\Tamidal 

 croT\'n; foliage bluish-green to siU'er>'- white or rarely dull green. 



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



T'lVIGS — Bright yellowish to reddish-brown, smooth. 



LEAF-Sr.\RS — Alternate, more titan 2-ranked. rin strongly projecting 

 decurrent ridges of the bark. BUXL>LE-SCAIiS — single. 



LE--WES — Bluish-green to silvery- whit e or rarely dtill green, 4-angled. 

 25-30 mm. long on sterile branches. <:>ften not over half as long on 

 fruiting branches, stout, stiff, sharp-pointed, incur\-ed. without proper 

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



Bt'DS — Ovate, blunt-pointed, light brown. 



FRirr — Otjlong-cNdindi-iial cones 2i- to 4 inclies long, genei'ally not 

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

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



COMP-^RISO.XS — 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 ccmes are further characteristic. 



DISTRiniTIOX — .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 "n-ith blue foliage, 



A^"OOD — Light, soft, close-grained, weak, pale lirown. or often nearly 

 white \\"ith hardly distinguishable satiwood. 



