Family: Pinaceae, Pine view all from this family
Description Large tree with dark or blue-green foliage and a dense, narrow, conical crown of short branches spreading in close rows.
Height: 80-100' (24-30 m).
Diameter: 1 1/2-2 1/2' (0.5-0.8 m).
Needles: evergreen; 5/8-1" (1.5-2.5 cm) long. Spreading on all sides of twig from very short leafstalks; 4-angled, short-pointed, slender, flexible; with disagreeable skunklike odor when crushed; dark or blue-green, with whitish lines.
Bark: grayish- or purplish-brown; thin, with loosely attached scales.
Twigs: brown, slender, hairy, rough, with peglike leaf bases.
Cones: 1 1/2-2 1/2" (4-6 cm) long; cylindrical, shiny light brown; hanging at end of leafy twig; cone-scales long, thin, and flexible, narrowed, may be irregularly toothed; paired, blackish, long-winged seeds.
Habitat Dominant with Subalpine Fir in subalpine zone up to timberline; also with other conifers.
Range Central British Columbia and SW. Alberta southeast to New Mexico; chiefly in Rocky Mountains; at 8000-12,000' (2438-3659 m) in south; down to 2000' (619 m) in north.
Discussion Its resonant qualities make the wood of Engelmann Spruce valuable for piano sounding boards and violins. This species was named after George Engelmann (1809-84), the German-born physician and botanist of St. Louis and authority on conifers.
