Colorado Blue Spruce (Picea pungens)

Colorado Blue Spruce is a variety of spruce tree that hails from the Rocky Mountains of the United States of America. It is an ornamental and outstanding border tree that offers screening all through the year. The tree is rated one among the most popular evergreen trees due to its wonderful appearance of silver blue-green colored spruce. This tree is called by other names, such as Colorado spruce, green spruce, blue spruce and white spruce. This drought-tolerant tree has a slow to average growth rate that grows well in full sun and it is extremely adaptable to all kinds of soils. At the adulthood, the Colorado Blue Spruce tree attains the columnar, pyramidal shape with its widespread branches. The Colorado Blue Spruce is the state tree of Colorado.

Features

A matured Colorado Blue Spruce tree attains a height, ranging from 50 feet to 75 feet with the branches spread between 10 feet and 20 feet. The tree has a grey-colored scaly bark on its trunk. The thickly growing flat branches of the tree appear with yellowish-brown in color.

The waxy grey-green colored leaves of the tree have a maximum length of one inch, which are set radially on the upward-curved shoots. The needles of the tree are rigid, thorny, with the length ranging from 1 inch to 1.5 inches. They enclose the branch virtually at right angles and are generally seen with silvery to blue-green in color, but rarely the blue color is absent.

The Colorado Blue Spruce tree produces flowers during April and May. These flowers are found in different colors, such as orange, green and purple.

The fruits of the tree are light brown in color, with the length ranging from 3 inches to 4 inches that suspend downward on the tree branches and are intense in the upper top.

Uses

The Colorado Blue Spruce tree is used as a ceremonial item and a traditional medical plant. The twigs of the tree are presented as gifts to bring good luck. A mixture of the needles of the tree is used to treat colds and settle the abdomen. This liquid is used outwardly to alleviate rheumatic pains.

The lifespan of the Colorado Blue Spruce tree ranges from 40 years to 60 years.