Colorado spruce, Colorado blue spruce
Needles attached singly via a woody 'peg' in common with other Picea species. Needles concolorous and strongly glaucous, stiff and somewhat chunky, tapering to a sharply pointed tip. Cones pendent, 5-10cm long, scales stiff, papery, and with coarsely toothed tips.
A montane species, Colorado blue spruce is found across Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming in the south-west USA. It was introduced to the British Isles in 1865 and Var. glauca is widely planted in gardens and parks for its eye-catching glaucous foliage. The scientific species name pungens refers not to fragrance, but to the sharp points at the tips of the needles. In the wild foliage colour ranges from dark green to glaucous, but in the British Isles it is usually Var. glauca that is encountered and this has strongly glaucous foliage in the first year which gradually becomes greener over time