365 Urban Species. Species #039: Blue Spruce.

[urbpan]

Species #039: Blue Spruce Picea pungens

The native range of blue, or Colorado, spruce is a fairly small section of the Rocky Mountains. It has been planted all over the country (and many other countries) as a landscape tree, as well as cultivated in farms as a Christmas tree. It is a slow-growing tree that produces undesirable timber--its high esteem is almost completely aesthetic. Blue spruce is pleasingly pyramidal and symmetrical, and its sharp green needles are coated with a waxy material that gives the tree a bluish cast.

My family purchased one for a Yule tree one year, and it proved to be a painful addition to the house. The needles are as sharp as cactus spines, and every step in the xmas process was marked with smarting encounters with them. Cats and other predators of birds may be deterred from climbing blue spruce to get at nestlings. Many different cultivars have been developed including a popular dwarf variety, and others that emphasize the blue color.

Comments

[brush-rat.livejournal.com]

Huh. I have no memory of that dread tree. Any idea when that was?

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Don't remember exactly. It must have been one of the last trees we got. Maybe you were at college?

[ankhanu.livejournal.com]

My neighbour has one on her lawn; it's fairly sizable. I always found the colour interesting, not just because of the bluecast, but because teh green is much darker than our native spruces. Good to know about their needles being so sharp without having to find out the hard way, thanks :)