Are pine trees and spruce trees the same sort of tree?
They look the same to me; they’re both “evergreens”! Yes, pine trees and spruce trees are both evergreens. That is, they always have foliage — in this case, needles — on them. They don’t drop all their foliage at once like deciduous trees — oaks, maples, etc. — do in the fall. Pines and spruces are also both conifers, which is the technical term for cone-bearing trees. But pines and spruces are different kinds of conifers. Pines are members of the Pinus genus. Spruces belong to Picea. One way to tell them apart are their needles. Pine needles grow in bunches of two to five needles, while spruce needles grow unbunched; each spruce needle grows by itself from the twig. Common spruces include the blue, white and Norway. Common pines include the white, Scotch and Austrian. Want to know something else that’s confusing? Some conifers, like the tamarack, aren’t evergreens. They drop all their needles in fall. And some evergreens, like the broad-leaved rhododendron, aren’t conifers. So. Pines
