Colorado’s State Tree

Charles Christopher Parry was called the “Father of Colorado Botany.” In 1862, the British doctor climbed Pikes Peak, which reaches 14,000 feet high into the sky. He was the first professional botanist to climb it since the famed Long expedition, more than forty years earlier.

On the mountain’s slopes, Parry discovered a magnificent spruce tree unknown to science. It was stately, symmetrical, and ranged in color from blue-gray to dark green to silver-blue. Today, we know it as the blue spruce, or Colorado blue spruce. (It is sometimes called the silver spruce because of its beautiful silvery-blue foliage.)

A State Tree Campaign

Thirty years later, the State Horticultural Society started a state tree campaign. Two members created a brochure on various Colorado trees. It was suggested that school children discuss the campaign with their students. They would then vote for their favorite trees on Arbor Day, April 15, 1892.

George L. Cannon, Jr., of East High School in Denver, listed some Colorado state tree qualities. He said it should not only grow in the mountains but should be characteristic of mountain scenery. The tree should also be beautiful, familiar, hardy, and of practical value. He also said it should have some historic or poetic quality that would endear it to Coloradans. In other words, it should be the Colorado blue spruce!

The blue spruce won by a landslide, with 16,931 votes. The white fir ranked second in popularity, with 732 votes. However, most of the children didn’t distinguish between the white fir, subalpine fir, and Douglas fir. Unspecified pines received 732 votes, and scattered votes were cast for the Engelmann spruce, cedar, cottonwood, box elder, maple, and aspen.

But the report on the state tree vote was filed away and forgotten. The blue spruce wasn’t officially adopted until March 7, 1939. In the meantime, Utah adopted the blue spruce in 1933.

A Rocky Mountain Giant

The blue spruce has been known to reach heights of one hundred fifty feet. It grows from Idaho south to New Mexico. In Colorado, it grows in small, scattered groves or singly among ponderosa pine, Douglas fir, alpine fir and Engelmann spruce. In Utah, it grows in the Wasatch and Uinta mountains at elevations of 6,000 to 11,000 feet. Its silvery-blue foliage makes the blue spruce a popular ornamental tree which is often used as a Christmas tree.

The only other state tree named after the state that adopted it was the Kentucky coffeetree, which was replaced by the tulip poplar. The blue spruce is grown in many other states and countries and is a very popular Christmas tree. But it will always be associated with Colorado, where it is loved more than almost any other state tree. Some people see the color green on the state insect as a reminder of Colorado’s evergreen forests. Orange is a reminder of another famed Colorado tree in fall—the aspen.

Support this site.

Linking to this site
(Free Images!)

Bill Gates: Google vs Wikipedia

The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism - Paperback