Pseudotsuga menziesii var. glauca, or
Rocky Mountain Douglas-fir, is an
evergreen conifer native to the interior
mountainous regions of western North America, from central
British Columbia and southwest
Alberta in Canada southward through the United States to the far north of Mexico. The range is continuous in the northern
Rocky Mountains south to eastern
Washington, eastern
Oregon,
Idaho, western and south-central
Montana and western
Wyoming, but becomes discontinuous further south, confined to "
sky islands" on the higher mountains in
Utah,
Colorado,
Arizona and
New Mexico, with only very isolated small populations in eastern
Nevada, westernmost
Texas, and northern Mexico. It occurs from 600 m altitude in the north of the range, up to 3,000 m, rarely 3,200 m, in the south. Further west towards the Pacific coast, it is replaced by the related
coast Douglas-fir (
Pseudotsuga menziesii var.
menziesii), and to the south, it is replaced by
Mexican Douglas-fir in high mountains as far south as
Oaxaca. Some botanists have grouped
Mexican Douglas-fir with
P. menziesii var.
glauca, but genetic and morphological evidence suggest that Mexican populations should be considered a different variety.