Spruce: Picea pungens

description for "Spruce: Picea pungens"

Colorado Spruce functions in the landscape as a screen, hedge, windbreak, or specimen. It has a narrow, pyramidal shape. It's a slow grower (6 to 12 inches per year), evergreen, with grey-green to greenish-blue needles, 2 to 4-inch long cones that mature to a shiny brown. Very susceptible to a wide array of pests, such as spruce gall aphid that cause branch tips die back, and spider mites. Better to treat this tree as a temporary addition to the landscape that can be replaced than to use toxic chemicals to treat problems. --edited by dtd siegelgirl

History:

Native to southwestern US.