Chihuahua Spruce
 

Mature Size, Growth, Longevity

A medium to large tree, to over 100 feet tall (sometimes to 120'), with a straight trunk and a narrow, conical crown. Lateral branches pendulous. Growth rate is slow to medium, 6-12" per year, averaging 6-15' after 10 years. This tree has the genetic potential to live at least 275 years.

Native Range

Native to the mountains of N.W. Mexico, in S.W. Chihuahua and W. Durango, Mexico. Species population in Mexico is only 3,000 or fewer mature trees, in three scattered clusters. Usually found on north-facing, high mountain sides.

Flower and Fruit Details

Monoecious. Male flowers purplish, hanging in lower crown of tree. Female flowers reddish, upright, cylindrical, in the upper crown of the tree. Fruit is a 5" long cone, light brown, with stiff, rounded scales.

Leaf and Bark Features

Evergreen: Evergreen with 4-sided, individual needles, 1" long, very sharp-pointed, but flexible, and bluish-green to silvery, grayish-blue. Bark is thin, gray or gray-brown to reddish-brown, becoming very scaly and loose, sometimes furrowed and gray.

Culture and Care

This tree grows in native stands in poor, barren, but always moist soil of alluvial origin, usually near permanent streams, but also on calcareous soils. Likes full sun to part shade.

Strengths, Weaknesses, Other Facts

One of the most heat-tolerant of all the spruces, even more so than the Blue Colorado Spruce, which it resembles. Good wildlife value. 4-season interest: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter. Not very cold hardy. Discovered in 1942. Resembles Engelmann Spruce and Blue Colorado Spruce. This is considered to be an endangered conifer on a global status, partly due to fires, logging and grazing. The species may be in danger of extinction.

Suggested Uses

Makes a good specimen tree, since this is a very ornamental spruce, resembling the Blue Colorado Spruce in many ways. Since it is an endangered plant globally, it should be grown in botanical gardens and landscapes to try to preserve the species.

Taxa and Plants of this Species at BCA