blue spruce

Also known as Colorado Blue Spruce, Colorado Spruce, Silver Spruce, Parry Spruce

Blue spruces thrive along cold mountain streams and dry rocky slopes across the southern Rocky Mountains, where their stiff, silvery-blue needles provide year-round color. A waxy coating called epicuticular wax shields the foliage from intense high-altitude sunlight and drying winds while giving the branches their iconic pale hue. Small mammals and songbirds rely on their dense, layered branches for winter shelter and harvest seeds from the delicate hanging cones.