Evergreen Tree Identification: Pine, Spruce, Fir and More

Evergreen tree identification starts with one question: what do the leaves look like? The Footpaths conifer key splits cone-bearing evergreens into three groups, and a fourth group covers broad-leaved evergreens:

• Classic needles: pine, spruce, fir, and true cedar (Cedrus)
• Flattened leaves: hemlock, Douglas-fir and yew
• Scales: juniper, arborvitae and cypress
• Broad leaves that stay green: American holly and southern magnolia, both described by NC State Extension as broadleaf evergreens

The top-ranking guides on this topic only cover conifers, so if your "evergreen" has wide, leathery leaves, skip straight to the broadleaf section below.

Davey Tree's guide separates the three most common needle trees with needles and cones:

• Pine: needles long and narrow, growing in clusters of 2 to 5 per bundle, smooth and flexible. Cones hang down and their scales are stiff and rough; you cannot bend them. Footpaths notes pine is the only one with needles in bundles.
• Spruce: needles grow one by one, are almost square and roll between your fingers, with sharp tips and a stiff feel. Each sits on a tiny bump (sterigma), and Footpaths notes the peg-like projections stay on the twig after the needles fall. Cones hang down, with thin, smooth, slightly flexible scales.
• Fir: needles grow one by one, are flat, soft and easy to bend, with round tips. Footpaths notes a circular indentation instead of a peg where the needle was, and needles that curve upward. Fir cones grow upright on the branch.

A quick rule from these features: bundles mean pine; a single needle that rolls means spruce; a single needle that will not roll means fir or one of the flat-leaved trees. More detail is on our pine tree identification page.

These three have flattened leaves, and Footpaths separates them this way:

• Hemlock: flattened leaves with blunt tips and no leaf stalk; cones about the size of a thumbnail. See hemlock tree identification.
• Douglas-fir: oval, raised leaf scars and cones with prominent bracts sticking out between the scales.
• Yew: flattened leaves with a short stalk and pointed tip; female plants carry red, berry-like fruits. NC State describes the leaves as 0.5 to 1.5 inches long, shiny dark green with a yellowish-green underside, in two rows along the stem.

Yew is poisonous. NC State Extension lists the bark, leaves, seeds and stems as toxic to people, cats, dogs, horses and cattle, and notes that the seed inside the red cup is poisonous even though the fleshy cup is not. Symptoms can include vomiting, breathing difficulty and irregular heart rhythm. If anyone swallows part of a yew, call Poison Control at 1-800-222-1222 in the US; for a pet or livestock, call your veterinarian.

Footpaths separates the scale-leaved trees by the shape of the branch tips and the cones:

• Juniper: branch tips are three-dimensional, cones look like blue berries, and young trees often have pointed scales.
• Arborvitae (Thuja): branchlets are flattened into two-dimensional sprays; cones are small and upright.
• Cypress (Chamaecyparis): also flat sprays, but cones are round, hanging and about fingernail-sized.

Many trees sold as "cedar" are one of these. Our cedar tree identification page sorts true cedars from junipers and arborvitae.

Not every evergreen is a conifer. NC State Extension describes two common broadleaf evergreens in the eastern US:

• American holly (Ilex opaca): thick, leathery, alternate leaves 2 to 4 inches long with evenly spaced, long, sharp spines along the edge; female trees carry red or orange berries through winter; 40 to 60 feet tall; native from Pennsylvania and Massachusetts south to Florida and west to Texas. NC State rates the berries a low-severity poison (nausea, vomiting, diarrhea), so keep children and pets from eating them.
• Southern magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora): glossy dark green leaves 5 to 10 inches long with rusty-brown fuzz underneath, and creamy white, fragrant flowers 8 to 12 inches across; 60 to 80 feet tall; native from Maryland to Florida and Texas.

If a "dead" conifer turns gold in autumn and drops every needle, it may be healthy. Bill Cook of Michigan State University Extension, writing on the Michigan Society of American Foresters site in 2003, notes that tamarack loses all of its needles each fall, making it a deciduous conifer. Check again in spring: new soft needles in tufts mean a living tamarack, not a dead pine.

Bill Cook's articles for the Michigan Society of American Foresters give a clear picture for Michigan:

• Native pines: only three, white pine, red pine (also called Norway pine) and jack pine; common introduced pines are Scotch pine and black pine (1999 and 2003 articles).
• Most common conifers in the Upper Peninsula (1999): balsam fir, then cedar, black spruce and white spruce. Jack pine ranks fifth, followed by hemlock, tamarack, red pine, white pine, Scotch pine and Norway spruce.
• Cook notes pines made up about 10% of Upper Peninsula wood volume and all conifers about 37%.
• Jack pine has serotinous cones that need about 120 degrees (Fahrenheit) to open, which usually comes from fire (2003).

Worldwide, Cook counts about 90 pine species and about 210 species in the pine family, which includes pines, larches, spruces, firs, hemlocks and Douglas-fir.

There is no official list of "the 14 evergreens"; these are 14 you are likely to meet in North America, each with the mark that identifies it (sources above):

• Eastern white pine: needles in bundles of 5 (see eastern white pine identification)
• Red pine: native Michigan pine, also called Norway pine
• Jack pine: cones that stay shut until heated to about 120 degrees
• Scotch pine: a common introduced pine
• White spruce and black spruce: square, sharp single needles; black spruce is the third most common Upper Peninsula conifer
• Norway spruce: on the Upper Peninsula conifer list; square single needles and hanging cones like other spruces
• Balsam fir: flat, soft needles, upright cones; the most common Upper Peninsula conifer
• Eastern hemlock: flat blunt needles, thumbnail-sized cones
• Douglas-fir: cones with bracts sticking out between the scales
• Northern white cedar (arborvitae): flat sprays of scales
• Juniper: blue berry-like cones
• Yew: flat needles and red cups around a poisonous seed
• American holly: a broadleaf evergreen with spiny leaves

Photograph a single twig close up so the needle attachment shows (bundle, peg or round scar), a cone on the tree or on the ground, the tip of a branch from above, and the whole tree for its shape. Photograph it and the app identifies it, with free scans every day; then confirm with the checks above.

Research and drafting for this page used AI assistance. Every measurement, date, price and claim was then checked against the sources listed below, which were opened and read on 2026-09-25. Where two sources give different numbers, both are shown.