Picea Chihuahuana USDA H8 hardy,
can have an extraordinary blue colour according to season and planting
Synonyms:
Picea martinezii T.F.Patt(but not the same as picea martinezii)
Common names:
Chihuahua spruce, Pinabete (Spanish)
Description
Tree to 30(-45) m tall, with trunk to 0.7(-1.2) m in diameter. Bark gray, flaky, with small checkers separated by shallow, narrow grooves. Crown broadly conical, with gracefully arched branches of very different lengths at a given level, bearing horizontal or slightly drooping side branches. New branchlets pale yellowish brown, hairless. Buds (4-)7-8(-10) mm long, resinous. Needles grayish green with wax, (1.2-)1.5-2(-2.5) cm long, straight or gently curved forward, diamond-shaped, with three to six lines of stomates in a band along the center of each of the four faces, very prickly. Pollen cones (1-)2-3 cm long, reddish. Seed cones (8.5-)10-14(-16) cm long, green before maturity, ripening chestnut brown. Seed scales egg-shaped, thin and flexible. Seed body (3-)4-6(-8) mm long, the wing 7-13 mm longer.
Sierra Madre Occidental in southwestern Chihuahua and western Durango and Sierra Madre Oriental in Nuevo León (Mexico). Usually mixed with other conifers and a few hardwoods along streams in montane forest; (2,150-)2,300-2,700(-3,200) m.
