Engelmann Spruce              PI-see-a en-gel-MAN-e-i

• Conifer, evergreen tree, 80-100 ft (24-30 m) tall, dense, narrow conical crown.  Bark gray-brown to russet-red, small scales loosely attached.  Needles linear, slender, about 2.5 cm long, sharp to the touch, tend to point formard, 4-angled in cross section (rolls easily between the fingers), dark or blue-green, a rank odor when crushed (not everyone can detect this).  Seed cones are 2.5-6 cm long, cylindrical, shiny light-brown, scales long, thin and flexible; male cones purplish.
• Sun.  Best on moist, well-drained soil.
• Hardy to USDA Zone 2     Native range from central British Columbia and southwest Alberta, southward through the Cascades (at 3,000 to 10,000 ft) of Washington and Oregon and into extreme northern California, eastward to the Rocky Mountains from central Montana to southern New Mexico.
• Note:  There are three spruce (Picea) species native to Oregon, namely:
• Engelmann spruce (P. engelmannii)  -  ordinarily grows in mountains above 4,000 ft, often in cold wet environments.  Therefore, it is not found in the Coast Range of Oregon and Washington.
• Sitka spruce (P. sitchensis)  -  found mostly in moist, well-drained sites along the Pacific Coast, seldom more than tens of miles from the ocean.
• Brewer spruce (P. brewerana)  -  native to a relatively limited area; the steep slopes of the Siskiyou Mountains of southern Oregon and northern California.
(from, Trees to Know in Oregon)
• Some selections of Engelmann Spruce available in the nursery trade:
  • 'Bushs Lace'  -  weeping habit, bluish-gray color, 6 × 4 ft (1.8 × 1.2 m) in 10 years.
  • 'Compacta'  -  dwarf, conical upright habit, blue-green color.
  • 'Missy'  -  very dwarf, blue, 1 × 1 ft (0.3 × 0.3 m) in 10 years.
  • 'Vanderwolf's Blue'  -  gray-blue, dense, upright, 7 × 4 ft (2.1 × 1.2 m) in 10 years..
• engelmannii: named after George Engelmann (1809-1884), a German-born physician and botanist in St. Louis and an authority on conifers.
• Oregon State Univ. campus: SE Peavy Hall, near sidewalk.