For more traditional-looking Christmas trees, Cain recommends selecting higher elevation conifers like white pine, white fir and Rocky Mountain Douglas fir. White pines have gray bark, blue-green foliage and long, soft needles. The branches are flexible, so heavy bulbs and ornaments may cause the limbs to droop. They're heavy cones with a dark woody color. They're the largest of our native pine cones, so they often are used in Christmas arts and crafts.
White firs have soft, blue-green foliage and an open branching pattern.
This openness makes displaying ornaments easier. Rocky Mountain Douglas firs have darker green foliage and shorter needles that remain attached to the tree very well, he said. Spruce and corkbark firs grow at New Mexico's highest elevations. However, spruce trees do tend to lose their needles faster than other native species. Corkbark firs look very much like white firs, but will have more dense foliage because they grow more slowly at higher elevations.