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Farewell to fall and its fleeting gold,
red, and bronze leaves. Hello to winter and its elegant pine, spruce,
and fir trees rising evergreen above the white hillsides and into the
brilliant blue sky.
Do you know the difference between a pine and a spruce,
or a spruce and a fir? With a bit of hands-on practice, it’s simple
to distinguish between these three types of coniferous (cone-bearing)
trees.
The next time you find yourself next to an unknown conifer,
shake hands with it! Reach out, grab a branch, and feel the needles.
Pines, spruces, and firs can easily be distinguished from each other
by simple differences in their needles.
Pines in packages:
When you shake hands with a pine, you’ll find the needles growing in
packages or bundles. This needle characteristic is unique to pines. Depending
upon the species, pine needles are bundled in twos, threes, or fives. Colorado
is home to five species of native pine: pinyon (Pinus edulis), ponderosa (P.
ponderosa), limber (P. flexilis), lodgepole (P. contortata), and bristlecone
(P. aristata).
Sharp square spruces:
Shake hands with a spruce and you’ll never forget how the sharp needles
jab your fingers! Unlike the pine, spruce needles grow singly. Spruce needles
are square in cross section, meaning that they can be rolled between the fingers-
an easy identification trait. Our state tree, the blue spruce (Picea pungens)-
and the engelmann spruce (P. engelmannii) are Colorado natives. You’ll
often see blue spruces towering over homes in Durango urban landscapes, although
their natural habitat is in the cool, moist mountains.
Flat, friendly, fragrant firs:
It’s a pleasure to shake hands with a fir. Like spruce needles, fir needles
also grow singly, but they are not the least bit sharp. Fir needles are flat
in cross section, and will not roll easily between the fingers. They are also
incredibly fragrant, making firs popular Christmas trees. My personal favorite,
the white fir (Abies concolor) and the subalpine fir (A. lasiocarpa) are the
native firs of Colorado. Interestingly, the douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menzeisii)
is not really a fir at all! It is considered a false hemlock, but has the flat,
fragrant needles of a fir.
Pines, spruces, and firs can also be distinguished
from a distance. Pine trees are marked by a flat or rounded crown,
and cones that are distributed over the entire tree. Spruce and fir
crowns are distinctly pointed, with cones found only on the upper third
of the tree. Spruce cones hang down and are often found beneath the
trees. Fir cones point up, and disintegrate before they can fall to
the ground, making them almost impossible to find beneath the tree.
Douglas-fir cones are sturdy, evenly distributed, and frequently found
on the ground.
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