Colorado Blue Spruce
Picea pungens
Colorado's state tree, a stiff, conical spruce prized for powder-blue, sharply pointed needles. Native to cool mountain streamsides but planted far beyond its range. Like other spruces, young catkins, immature cones, and inner bark have all served as food, and the shoot tips brew into a vitamin C-rich tea.
- Family
- Pinaceae
- Type
- tree
- Lifespan
- perennial
- Height
- 30–60 ft
- Spacing
- 10–20 ft apart
- Light
- part shade
- Soil moisture
- moist
- Soil pH
- acidic, neutral, alkaline
- Bloom
- April, May
- Bloom colors
- yellow
- Wildlife value
- songbirds, mammals, larval host
- Caterpillar hosts
- ~150 butterfly & moth species
- Landscape uses
- hedge or screen, naturalizing
- Native states
- AZ, CO, ID, NM, UT, WY
Related native plants
More Picea species
- Sitka Spruce (Picea sitchensis)
- Red Spruce (Picea rubens)
- Engelmann Spruce (Picea engelmannii)
- White Spruce (Picea glauca)