The Black Hills spruce was adopted on March 10, 1947. Some people complained that it only grows in the Black Hills, in far western South Dakota. On the other hand, the state flower is a grassland species, as is the state grass. The tree-covered hills that make up this oasis on the plains look black from a distance. The Black Hills spruce is actually a type of white spruce, one of the most important trees in the boreal , or northern, forest, which stretches from eastern Canada and the northern states westward into Alaska.
White spruces grow from eastern Canada and Maine westward into Alaska.
Their range extends south into Montana, with an isolated population in South Dakota's isolated Black Hills. The white spruce that grows in the Black Hills was once considered a subspecies, with the scientific name Picea glauca densata . Today, it's merely considered a geographical variety. It grows slower than other white spruces and is more compact. Its needles are denser and darker, varying from a bright green to bluish green.