Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Picea pungens
Common name
Blue spruce
Family
Pinaceae
Where found
Garden escape. Sydney area. Lower Blue Mountains.
Notes
Introduced tree to 50 m tall. Leaves spine-tipped. Bark grey-brown, scaly, becoming furrowed. Branches yellow-brown, drooping. Twigs usually hairless, yellow-brown. Leaves aromatic when rubbed, spirally arranged, 1.6–3 cm long, rigid, 4-angled in cross section, blue-green. Male and female cones on the same plant. Male cones emerge reddish purple and ripen to yellow-brown, scattered throughout the tree. Female cones cylindrical, 50–102 mm long at maturity, pale green, reddish or purple when young, pale brown at maturity, made up of many papery or thinly woody pointed scales, in the tops of the trees.
VICFLORA description: https://vicflora.rbg.vic.gov.au/flora/taxon/ebbbe48c-990a-482c-b940-be7ad512810f (accessed 10 March 2021)
Gymnosperm Database description: https://www.conifers.org/pi/Picea_pungens.php (accessed 10 March 2021)
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