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A blue spruce is a fairly blue tree: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_spruce https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_spruce

bregma 6y ago
Blue spruce is actually pretty darn green, but its needs have a waxy coating that alters our perception of the colour of the underlying tissue. New needles, and needles you scrape with your fingernails, reveal their true green colour. A waxy coating is a strong selector for survival in an environment where preventing evaporation is a must, such as locations in which the ambient temperature drops below the freezing point of water for much of the year.
- SECProto 6y ago
  Do black spruce have a waxy coating? They certainly don't appear blue, and they thrive in locations with much colder winters than the blue spruce.
  - piva00 6y ago
    As far as I know all coniferous (Pinophyta) have waxy coatings, black spruces are a species of Pinophyta so I'd assume they do. I might be wrong, I'm no botanist.
- dTal 6y ago
  Isn't that a little like saying that a shiny red sports car is actually metallic gray, but it has a coating that alters our perception of it so that it appears red to our eyes? Color is what we perceive, nothing else. If it looks blue, it is blue.
  - Avamander 6y ago
    Well, if you look the world through blue-tinted windows it doesn't make the world suddenly bluer though. I think the same kind-of applies here.
    - TwelveNights 6y ago
      I think in this case the wax lining on the pines would be moreso a property of the object rather than the apparatus through which we see the object.
      - yndoendo 6y ago
        Is not the category of it Photosynthesis? Internally the environment of Blue spruce is the evolutionary standard of Green, not Blue. The blue perception would also reflect a Blue perception of photosynthesis standard.
  - bregma 6y ago
    It's more like saying that the steel your shiny red sports car is made of is actually metallic grey even though it has a veneer of red enamel on it.

bregma 6y ago

Blue spruce is actually pretty darn green, but its needs have a waxy coating that alters our perception of the colour of the underlying tissue. New needles, and needles you scrape with your fingernails, reveal their true green colour. A waxy coating is a strong selector for survival in an environment where preventing evaporation is a must, such as locations in which the ambient temperature drops below the freezing point of water for much of the year.

SECProto 6y ago
Do black spruce have a waxy coating? They certainly don't appear blue, and they thrive in locations with much colder winters than the blue spruce.
- piva00 6y ago
  As far as I know all coniferous (Pinophyta) have waxy coatings, black spruces are a species of Pinophyta so I'd assume they do. I might be wrong, I'm no botanist.
dTal 6y ago
Isn't that a little like saying that a shiny red sports car is actually metallic gray, but it has a coating that alters our perception of it so that it appears red to our eyes? Color is what we perceive, nothing else. If it looks blue, it is blue.
- Avamander 6y ago
  Well, if you look the world through blue-tinted windows it doesn't make the world suddenly bluer though. I think the same kind-of applies here.
  - TwelveNights 6y ago
    I think in this case the wax lining on the pines would be moreso a property of the object rather than the apparatus through which we see the object.
    - yndoendo 6y ago
      Is not the category of it Photosynthesis? Internally the environment of Blue spruce is the evolutionary standard of Green, not Blue. The blue perception would also reflect a Blue perception of photosynthesis standard.
- bregma 6y ago
  It's more like saying that the steel your shiny red sports car is made of is actually metallic grey even though it has a veneer of red enamel on it.