Here, we examined needle structures, needle chemical components, physiological characteristicsgrowth traits across fve Picea species in a common garden in Tianshui, Gansu province in China: Picea glauca, P. mari?ana, P. likiangensis, P. koraiensis,P. crassifolia, among which P. glaucaP. mariana were introduced from North America, P. likiangensis was from Lijiang, Yunan province in China, P. koraiensis was from Yichun, Heilongjiang province in China,P. crassifolia was native to the experimental site. It was found that nearly all traits varied signifcantly among species. Tissue-level anatomical characteristicsleaf mass per area (LMA) were afected by needle size, but the variations of them were not associated with the variations in photosyntheticbiochemical capacity among species. Variations in area-based maximum photosynthesis (Pnmax) were afected by stomatal conductance (gs), mesophyll conductance (gm)biochemical parameters including maximum carboxylation rate (Vcmax),maximum electron transport rate (Jmax). The fraction of N allocated to diferent photosynthetic apparatus displayed contrasting values among species, which contributed to the species variations in photosynthetic nitrogen use efciency (PNUE)Pnmax. Additionally, all growth traits were positively correlated with PnmaxPNUE.