Quiz: Can You Identify These Landscape Evergreens?

Everyone close your books and take out a sheet of paper. It’s quiz time.

It’s important to know the identify of evergreens in our landscapes. For example, if an evergreen has a problem, and we want to investigate a solution, it won’t help much by generically referring to them as “pines” or “evergreens.” The identity of the specific type is important, and that’s the first step in seeking information about them.

Here is a quiz to help learn the evergreen types commonly found in the Upper Midwest. Answers are given at the end. Here is a word-bank from which to choose. Most names are used more than once.

Word bank: Yew, Juniper, Mugho Pine, Ponderosa Pine, Scotch Pine, Black Hills Spruce, Colorado Blue Spruce, Arborvitae.

Good luck. Some of them are a little tricky. Clicking on individual photos will enlarge them, if you need, and then hitting the “back” arrow will return to the quiz in most screens.

Answers:

1. Arborvitae (pyramidal)
2. Scotch Pine
3. Scotch Pine
4. Ponderosa Pine
5. Ponderosa Pine
6. Colorado Blue Spruce
7. Colorado Blue Spruce
8. Black Hills Spruce
9. Black Hills Spruce
10. Arborvitae
11. Arborvitae (globe)
12. Mugho Pine
13. Yew
14. Yew
15. Juniper
16. Juniper (spreading or creeping)
17. Juniper (pyramidal)

Happy Gardening!