General: Tree straight, spire-like, up to 50 m tall; bark brownish-red and loosely scaly, thin; young twigs usually hairy, occasionally glabrous.
Leaves: Needles sharp, not stiff; twisting somewhat toward upper side of branch; 4-angled; strong odour.
Cones: Seed cones 4-5 cm long, becoming yellowish-brown at maturity; scales blunt to abruptly sharp-pointed, finely irregular wavy margined, papery thin; pollen cones yellow, 10-15 mm long.
Notes: Known to hybridize with P. sitchensis (west side of the Coast-Cascade Mountains) and P. glauca (see notes under P. glauca). Pure P. engelmannii is found mainly in the Rocky Mountains.
Moist to dry slopes, floodplains, and flats in the montane and subalpine zones; very common in C and S BC, except on coast; E to W AB and S to N CA, AZ and NM.
The table below shows the species-specific information calculated from original data (BEC database) provided by the BC Ministry of Forests and Range. (Updated August, 2013)
A shade-tolerant/intolerant to very shadeintolerant, montane to subalpine, Cordilleran North American evergreen conifer. Grows on a wide range of sites in continental subalpine and montane boreal climates; its occurrence increases with increasing elevation and continentality. Most productive on fresh and moist, nutrient-very rich soils within cool temperate climates. Scattered to abundant in the coastinterior ecotone, often hybridizes with Sitka spruce. Typically associated with lodgepole pine, Pacific silver fir or subalpine fir and white spruce. Because of good survival and productive growth, Engelmann spruce has been preferred over other tree species in regenerating high-elevation sites on eastern Vancouver Island and in the coast-interior ecotone. Characteristic of continental subalpine forests.
