There are a lot of different conifers in the Rocky Mountains.
Rocky Mountain conifers include firs, spruces, and many pine trees. Here are the common conifers you are likely to see in the Rocky Mountains.
The Rocky Mountains are full of beautiful and amazing wildflowers, trees, and wildlife. During the summer I’m usually overcome with the flowers. Then in the fall I love watching the trees change color. Once winter has arrived the flowers are done blooming and the leaves have fallen off the broadleaf trees. That leaves all of the evergreens, mainly conifers in the Rocky Mountains. Here are some of the common Rocky Mountain conifers that you’ll notice the next time you head out to explore the Rockies.
Photo via Flickr.
What Is A Conifer?
A conifer is a type of evergreen (remember though not all evergreens are conifers) that reproduces through making cones.
Side note – there is one type of conifer that is deciduous, the Western Larch.
An easy way to remember what conifer trees are is conifer – cone bearing. Check out this past post to learn more about how conifers reproduce or read about male and female cones on the trees.
Common Rocky Mountain Conifers
A Douglas fir is a common conifer.
Douglas Fir
Needles: 1 inch long and flattish, green above with two white stripes on the bottom; they have a lemony smell when crushed.
Cone: 2-3 inches long with what looks like tongues sticking out from between the cone scales; cones hang down on the tree
Max Height: 300 feet
Fun Facts: This tree can live for a long time – up to 500 years or even longer, making it among the oldest trees in the world.
Read this other post for two quick and easy ways to tell apart a fir and spruce tree.
An Englemann’s spruce tree. Photo credit Mike Kuhns.
Englemann’s Spruce
Needles: Only 1 inch long and bluish-green in color
Cone: 1 to 2 inches long
Max Height: 130 feet
Fun Facts: This tree grows at high elevations and has a very conical shape (it is straight up and down with a very narrow top and wider base). They can survive in very cold temperatures, down to negative sixty degrees!
The needles are four sided, which allows them to be rolled in your fingers (unlike fir needles which are flat and can’t roll in your fingers).
A subalpine fir. Photo via Flickr.
Subalpine Fir
Needles: 3/4 to 1 1/2 inches with two blue/white bands on the underside.
Cone: 2 to 4 inches
Max Height: Up to 100 feet, but become shorter and stunted as they approach tree line.
Fun Facts: This is a tall, hardy tree that often grows at high altitudes up to and near tree line. The needles on this tree are very nice smelling when you crush them. The native peoples used the crushed up needles for a variety of uses due to their nice smell, such as baby powder and body scent.
A beautiful Pinyon pine is an evergreen and a conifer.
Pinyon Pine
Needles: 1 to 2 inches long and grow in pairs of two; green with a whitish band on the inside surface
Cone: 1 to 2 inches long
Max Height: 60 feet
Fun Facts: This is a small to moderate sized tree that grows at lower elevations.
The seeds inside of the cone are called pine nuts. Pine nuts are good to eat and were one of the main foods Native Americans ate.
Tall lodgepole pine trees are common rocky mountain conifers.
Lodgepole Pine
Needles: 1 to 2 inches long in bundles of 2
Cone: 1 to 3 inches long; cones have sharp tips on the scales
Max Height: 100 feet
un Facts: This is the most common conifer (evergreen) found in the Northern Rocky Mountains. It grows very straight.
The Native Americans used to use the trunks from these trees to make their tipis since they are long, straight, and lightweight.
The cones are tightly sealed and only open after extreme heat, such as from a fire. After a fire hundreds of seeds will grow in the same area and form an even aged lodgepole pine forest.