### plant | tracheophyte | tree | conifer | spruce:

Blue spruce
* adds the color blue.
* are shapely and beautiful, but their needles are usually stiff and sharp.
* grows on a variety of soil types.
* has the best needle retention of the spruces.
* is also sensitive to herbicides applied to home lawns to control broadleaf weeds
  - the state tree of Colorado and of Utah
* medium to large tree with pyramidal form.

### plant | tracheophyte | tree | conifer | spruce:

Red spruce
* are spruces.
* are, and grow in the high country above the hardwoods.
* grows at the higher elevations and there is some hemlock in the deeper moist hollows
  - best in a cool, moist climate
* has few diseases.
* is able to grow as a seedling in the shade of the surrounding bigger trees
  - also one of the most susceptible species to acid rain deposition
  - an extremely valuable resource for pulp and lumber production
  - the most important species for both lumber and pulpwood
* prunes itself about as well as most softwoods in dense stands.

### plant | tracheophyte | tree | conifer | spruce:

White spruce
* are plants
  - somewhat susceptible
* becomes less accommodating of soil with increasing severity of climate.
* can live for several hundred years.
* climax canopy tree in the boreal forests of Canada and Alaska.
* grow from eastern Canada and Maine westward into Alaska.
* grows best in full sunlight and it tolerates shade
  - well-drained, moist, silty loam and clay soils
  - on a wide variety of soils of glacial, lacustrine, marine, or alluvial origin
* has a good natural shape.
* has a transcontinental distribution
  - range in North America
  - excellent foliage color, short stiff needles, and a good, natural shape
  - one of the largest ranges of any North American conifer
* is also common and balsam fir occurs in minor quantities
  - important as a source of food for grouse and seed eating birds
  - one of the most valued wood species in Canada
  - rated as resistant to preservative treatment
  - sensitive to transplanting shock
  - subject to severe damage from spring frosts
  - the provincial tree of Manitoba
  - tolerant of a considerable amount of shade
* popular tree in Canada, also.
* stands typically have well-developed organic soil layers.

### plant | tracheophyte | tree:

Coniferous tree
* Many coniferous trees are harvested for paper pulp and timber.
* Most coniferous trees are also evergreen.
* Most coniferous trees have both male and female cones
  - the leaf pattern shown on the left
  - values
  - provide protection
* Some coniferous trees have coats
  - waxy coats
* Some coniferous trees produce edible seeds
* appear to be dominant, but broad-leaved trees are common within the forest.
* are a very important source of timber for lumber and paper
  - among the tallest, largest and oldest organisms on Earth
  - amongst the largest and oldest organisms of Earth
  - characteristic but there is regional variation in other plant associations
  - cone-bearing trees that have thin needlelike leaves
  - the climax species in forest succession
  - tolerant to a wide range of soils and climates
  - very common in the taiga biome
  - woody plants
* can be small bushes or hundred metre high redwoods.
* dominate the entire forest but deciduous trees are also present.
* have values.
* keep their leaves and then shed only the oldest leaves.
* occur as undergrowth and plantations.
* produce cones.
* stay green when it is cold and snowy.