Single Record
Participant Info
- Species
- Picea engelmannii
- Family
- Pinaceae
- CommonName
- Engelmann spruce
- Presence
- Yes
- Status
- native
- EarliestDate
- 1928
- LatestDate
- 2020
- Ecosystem
- basin, montane, subalpine
- Geobotanical
- SSawatch, Garitas, SSanjuans, NCristos, UBasin
- Counties
- Alamosa, Conejos, Costilla, Hinsdale, Mineral, Rio Grande, Saguache, San Juan
- Passes
- Elwood, Grayback, Medano, Music, South, Spring Creek, Stony, Wolf Creek
- WildlifePreserves
- Baca, Great Sand Dunes
- Other Localities
- Comments
- Engelmann spruce is the dominant conifer of the subalpine zone on both sides of the Watershed. In the San Juans of the Watershed, Picea engelmannii has suffered catastrophic kills, with natural resistance to the Curculionid beetle Dendroctonus rufipennis (the "spruce beetle") lowered by long-term drought. In the USA, the tree ranges from the eastern foothills of the Rockies through all Western states (absent, however, from most of the California mountains). It follows the Rio Grande drainage through New Mexico but not farther into Texas. Note that the single Basin voucher came from the Cattle Headquarters now on the Baca NWR, planted there.
- Annotation