Return to Native Trees of the Rocky Mountains home page

White spruce grows in the Black Hills. This tree is similar to Engelmann spruce except the needles are less than 3/4 inch long, the lower needles on a twig twist upwards, and the cone scale edges are round and smooth. White spruce is typical of the forests of Canada, and those of the Black Hills are 600 miles south of the main body, perhaps be a relic of the last ice age when the climate was cooler and trees now found much farther north were widespread in the United States. As the ice retreated and the climate warmed, some species persisted in cold areas such as mountain slopes. Scientific name is Picea glauca.