Picea pungens
The Picea pungens or more commonly known as the blue spruce is primarily located in the Rocky Mountain range of the western United States. It can be found in the states of Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Montana. The Blue spruce grows best at a climate that is generally cool and humid, with having the precipitation occurring in the summer. It does best in a climate that has an abundant amount of moisture, but is surprisingly more drought tolerant than any other spruces. The Blue Spruce is found in the Wasatch and Uinta mountains in Utah at elevations between 6,000 to 11,000 feet.
The blue spruce is a monocot, and is slow to medium in growing. It prefers heavier soils, full sun, and clear cultivation and uses C3 photosynthesis. Colorado blue spruce trees will reach a height of six feet in eight years on a good site, starting with a two year old seedling. The Blue spruce is able to survive up to 600 years or more and the largest blue spruce to be recorded, grew to 126 feet tall in the Gunnison National Forest in Colorado. The roots of the Blue spruce are relatively shallow compared to that of the Douglas fir or Ponderosa pine. The four-angled needles of the blue spruce range from ¾ to 1 and 1/8 inches long and are a shade of a blue green color. Blue spruces have brown or gray bark that has scaly ridges on the outside. The cones are 2 and ½ to 4 inches long and are light brown in color and also have irregularly toothed scales. In Utah, the Blue spruce is found to be the dominant specie in three common areas: mountain slopes, floodplains or valley bottoms, and montane sites on alluvium or aqueaceous north aspect deposits.
One aspect of the Blue spruce is the value of its appearance. It is commonly recognized as the Christmas tree and is sold as so at Christmas time. The blue spruce was chosen by the Utah State legislature in 1933 to be the state tree. There are various insects that attack the Blue spruce, but none of them cause any significant damage.
