Description

Leaves: Needles borne singly; about 1" long; sharp; evergreen; dark green; 4-angled, but somewhat flattened in cross-section.

Twigs/buds: On older trees of larger cultivars long twigs often hang down and sway in the wind; glabrous; leaves on a short stalk that remains part of the twig.  Buds 1/4" long; red-brown or light brown; not resinous; scales often with spreading tips; rosette shaped.

Flowers/fruit: Monoecious.  Fruit a large papery cone that hangs down; 4" to 7" long; light tan colored.

Bark: Light to dark gray; made-up of thin scales; in wide ridges on older trees.

Wood: Important in Europe and somewhat in eastern U.S.; light colored; indistinct heartwood; slightly resinous; used for pulp and paper.

General: Native to Europe.  Widely planted ornamentally in U.S and fairly commonly planted in Utah.  Gets taller and wider, grows faster than blue spruce.  Intermediate shade tolerance.

Landscape Use: Beautiful and desirable, but highly variable depending on cultivar.  Medium growth rate and can get very tall and wide.  Placing two or three together in a large-scale landscape can be very impressive.  Long, weeping branchlets on some cultivars are very attractive.  Like blue spruce, many planted trees are being killed by spruce ips beetle attack, made worse by chronic under-watering.  Zones 2-7.

Cultivars: 'Argenteospica', 'Clanbrassiliana', 'Maxwell', 'Nidiformis', forma pendula, 'Procumbens', 'Pumila', 'Repens'.

Characteristics