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| ## blue spruce {#blue-spruce .Title-Header}                           |
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| *Picea pungens* Engelm.                                               |
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| Plant Symbol = PIPU                                                   |
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Contributed by: USDA NRCS National Plant Data Center & the Biota of
North America Program

### Alternate names ![](media/image2.jpeg){width="2.6972222222222224in" height="4.0465277777777775in"}

Colorado blue spruce, white spruce, silver spruce, Parry spruce, water
spruce, *Picea parryana* Sargent

### Uses

Blue spruce has been little used for lumber or wood products because it
is rarely abundant in nature and the wood is brittle and often full of
knots. It sometimes is cut with Engelmann spruce. Because of its cold
hardiness, symmetrical pyramidal form, and waxy, blue-hued foliage, blue
spruce is widely planted in ornamental and general landscape settings.
Numerous horticultural cultivars have been developed, based on needle
color and crown form. It is used considerably for Christmas trees and
blue spruce plantations have been established in the northeastern US --
these probably the source of

escapes reported for several states far from its native range (Maine,
Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland). Blue spruce is the
state tree of Colorado and of Utah.

### Status

Please consult the PLANTS Web site and your State Department of Natural
Resources for this plant's current status, such as, state noxious status
and wetland indicator values.

### Description

*General*: Pine Family (Pinaceae). Native trees growing to 50 meters
tall, the crown long-conic; branches whorled, ascending to slightly to
strongly drooping; twigs not pendent, stout, yellow-brown, usually
without hair; many small twigs produced on the main trunk and between
the main whorls of branches; bark relatively thick, gray-brown, breaking
into furrows and rounded ridges, only slightly scaly. Needles are
evergreen, borne singly and at right angles from all sides of the twig,
1.6-3 cm long, 4-angled, stiff and sharply spine-tipped, silvery to
blue-green. Seed cones are green or violet, ripening pale buff, (5) 6-11
(12) cm long, ellipsoid, pendent, the scales elliptic to diamond-shaped,
widest below middle, stiff at the base, the tip flexible, unevenly
toothed, and extending 8-10 mm beyond seed-wing impression. The common
name is based upon the blue foliage color of some races.

*Variation within the species*: trees with similar color tend to occur
in small, local populations, suggesting that color traits are under
genetic control. The color variation does not conform to a clinal
pattern. Most other variable features in blue spruce (e.g., physiology,
early survival, growth rate) similarly do not follow geographical
parameters; date of bud set follows a local altitudinal pattern.

Besides features of habit, leaf color, and habitat, blue spruce is
distinguished from Engelmann spruce by its cones and cone scales that
average larger in size, but these characteristics are often partially or
completely overlapping. Blue spruce also differs in its glabrous twigs.

### Distribution

The native range of blue spruce is the central and southern Rocky
Mountains of the USA -- in Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico
and Arizona. For current distribution, please consult the Plant Profile
page for this species on the PLANTS Web site.

### Adaptation 

Blue spruce commonly occurs on stream banks in moist canyon bottoms
(hence one of its common names, water spruce) but may grow on gentle to
steep mountain slopes in Douglas fir or spruce-fir woods up to
timberline; at 1800-3000 meters elevation in mid-montane forests. It
often grows with subalpine fir, white fir, and Engelmann spruce. It is
cultivated on a wide variety of soils, except those that are very moist.

### Establishment

Blue spruce begins to produce seed at about 20 years; maximum seed
production occurs between 50-150 years. Good cone years occur at
intervals of 2-3 years. Seed germination is mostly confined to exposed
mineral soil with side shade and overhead light, but natural
reproduction is scanty, probably because the light seeds are prevented
from coming into contact with mineral soil by the dense herbage, grass,
or other ground-cover vegetation that is usually abundant in the habitat
of the species. Seedling establishment is probably benefited by moisture
availability and shading, which prolong snow and soil moisture in late
spring.

Blue spruce is a slow-growing tree and some individuals have been
reported to live for more than 600 years. Reproduction by layering has
not been reported for this species.

### Management

Western spruce budworm larvae feed on old needles in late April, then
mine developing buds and defoliate new tree growth. Heavy repeated
attacks kill the tree.

### Cultivars, Improved and Selected Materials (and area of origin)

These plant materials are readily available from commercial sources.
Contact your local Natural Resources Conservation Service (formerly Soil
Conservation Service) office for more information. Look in the phone
book under "United States Government." The Natural Resources
Conservation Service will be listed under the subheading "Department of
Agriculture."

### References

Daubenmire, R. 1972. *On the relation between Picea pungens and Picea
engelmannii in the Rocky Mountains*. Canad. J. Bot. 50:733-742.

Fechner, G.H. 1990. *Picea pungens*. Pp. 238-249, IN R.M. Burns and B.H.
Honkala. *Silvics of North America*. *Volume 1.* *Conifers*. USDA Forest
Service Agric. Handbook 654, Washington, D.C.
\<http://willow.ncfes.umn.edu/silvics_manual/Table_of_contents.htm\>

Taylor, R.J. 1993. *Picea*. Pp. 369-373, IN *Flora of North America,
north of Mexico*. Vol. 2, *Pteridophytes and gymnosperms*. Oxford Univ.
Press, New York, New York.
\<http://hua.huh.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/Flora/flora.pl?FLORA_ID=12395\>

### Prepared By

*Guy Nesom*

Formerly BONAP, North Carolina Botanical Garden, University of North
Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina

### Species Coordinator

## *Gerald Guala*

USDA, NRCS, National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Edited 05dec00 jsp; 13feb03 ahv; 060802 jsp

For more information about this and other plants, please contact your
local NRCS field office or Conservation District, and visit the PLANTS
Web site\<[http://plants.usda.gov](http://plants.usda.gov/)\> or the
Plant Materials Program Web site
\<[http://Plant-Materials.nrcs.usda.gov](http://Plant-Materials.nrcs.usda.gov/)\>

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*To file a complaint of discrimination write USDA, Director, Office of
Civil Rights, Room 326-W, Whitten Building, 14th and Independence
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