Norway Spruce - Larger photo - needles 1/2" - 1" long and shiny, dark green.

Needle retention is poor without proper care; strong fragrance; nice conical shape.

Norway Sprucehas branchlets that typically hang downwards. It also has the the largest cones of any type of spruce, 9-17 cm long.

It is very closely related to the Siberian spruce (Picea obovata), which replaces it east of the Ural Mountains, and with which it hybridizes freely. The Norway spruce has a wide distribution for it being planted for its wood (remember the Beatles singing about good Norwegian wood?)

The Norway Spruce makes a beautiful Christmas tree and is the species used as the main Christmas tree in Europe where it is also widely planted for that. Every Christmas, the Norwegian capital city, Oslo, provides the cities of London (the Trafalgar Square Christmas tree), Edinburgh and Washington D.C. with a Norway spruce, which is placed at the most central square of each city.

This is mainly a sign of gratitude for the aid these countries gave during the Second World War.