Montane, subalpine, alpine. Woodlands. Spring.
Horse Creek Trail, June 6, 2004.

Two inch cones mature at the top of a thirty foot young Engelmann.

Click to see the amazing way these cones are pollinated.

Montane, subalpine, alpine. Woodlands. Spring.
Lizard Head Trail, July 11, 2008.

Click to see Picea engelmannii in its krummholz form.

Montane, subalpine. Woodlands. Spring.
Near Yellow Jacket Canyon, March 4, 2004.

Winter makes the 3-4 inch long seed cones more visible.

Montane, subalpine. Woodlands. Spring.
Near Yellow Jacket Canyon, June , 2005.

Cooley Spruce Galls are fairly common on Colorado Blue Spruce but usually do little damage.  The distorted growth results from an Aphid-like insect, Adelges cooleyi, depositing its eggs on the tree terminal twigs.  The emerging young insects feed on new spring twig growth, and the tree isolates this unwanted irritation in a gall.  The Aphids grow within the gall, break free when the gall dries and cracks open, are transformed to a winged stage and leave the plant, returning later to re-start the cycle.

The pictured gall is just beginning to form and the new needle growth is changing from its lustrous blue/green to typical spruce-gall light pink.