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.

Montane, subalpine, alpine. Woodlands. Spring.
Helmet Peak, July 20, 2000.
Madden Peak, June 23, 2004.

At the limits of tree growth (around 11,500 feet in the Four Corners area) trees are compressed and distorted by wind, short growing season, intense sun, and snow pack.  These forces shape trees into ten or fifteen foot tall, wind-blown "banner trees" (trees with no limbs on the wind side: the trees at the left of the first photo and in the top center of the second photo) and krummholz (German for "crooked wood": the dwarfed, compact, crooked trees in both photos). Krummholz provides a haven for flora and fauna that cannot thrive in the nearby intensity. They are also a haven for humans wanting to picnic out of the wind.

Click to see Picea engelmannii in winter.

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 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.