Most of us casually refer to all evergreens as pine trees, but pines are actually just one type of evergreen.
White pines have bluish-green needles up to 5 inches long and grow in bunches of five. The cones are long too, measuring 4 to 8 inches.
Red pines have dark green needles that are 4 to 6 inches long and grow in bunches of two. The cones are much smaller than the white pine at only 2 inches long.
And our third native pine is the Jack pine… also called the Norway pine. Both the grayish-green needles and twisted cones are short at up to 1.5 inches long.
We have two native spruce.
Black spruce have drooping branches. Bluish green needles are sharp and short at ½-inch long. The cones are oval shaped and up to 1.5 inches long.
White spruce have sharp bluish green needles that range from ⅓ to ¾ inches long. The cones are more slender than the black spruce and about 2 inches long.
The very popular blue spruce, also called the Colorado spruce, is not native to Minnesota. The sharp blue needles are less than an inch long and the thin cones are 2 to 4 inches in length.
The balsam fir has short needles like a spruce but they are not sharp. You’ll notice the dark green color of the needles with a silvery underside. The 2- to 4-inch cones grow upright.
Cedars have a much different appearance.
For the eastern red cedar, sometimes called a juniper, Both the scaly leaves and berry-like cones are bluish colored.
White cedar have yellow-green fan-like leaves with tiny yellow-brown cones.
Hemlocks have short, blunt needles and cones.
And tamaracks are most easily identified in the fall, because their needles turn yellow and fall to the ground.