Blue spruce

Blue Spruce

Description

A large coniferous tree, Picea pungens, native to the Rocky Mountain region of North America. The blue spruce has a light bluish-gray tone to its needles and is commonly used for landscaping and gardens. Its weak and brittle timber is used locally for log cabins. Occasionally the name blue spruce is incorrectly used for black spruce trees.

Synonyms and Related Terms

Picea pungens; épicéa bleu (Fr.); épicéa du Colorado (Fr.); prickly spruce; Colorado blue spruce; silver spruce

Authority

• G.S.Brady, Materials Handbook, McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York, 1971 Comment: p. 759

• Dictionary of Building Preservation, Ward Bucher, ed., John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York City, 1996

• Van Nostrand's Scientific Encyclopedia, Douglas M. Considine (ed.), Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 1976

• Random House, Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, Grammercy Book, New York, 1997

• The American Heritage Dictionary or Encarta, via Microsoft Bookshelf 98, Microsoft Corp., 1998