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Norway spruce is the most common spruce in cultivation and there are more than 120 different named cultivars in a wide range of forms and sizes. The typical wild Norway spruce is a large evergreen conifer, cone shaped when young but becoming more columnar with maturity. It gets 80-150 ft (24-46 m) tall with a crown spread of 20 ft (6 m) or more, and a trunk diameter up to 5 ft (1.5 m). In cultivation, they rarely exceed 50 ft (15 m) in height. The trunk bark is reddish brown to purplish and flakes off in thin plates. The bark on young shoots is orange brown. The main branches come off the trunk in a whorled pattern, mainly horizontal with upward turned tips. Smaller branchlets tend to droop downward off the main branches. The gray green to blue green needles are about an inch long or a little less, and distinctly four-angled. They point forward and upward and are thickly set on the shoots, like a bottle brush. Most of the smaller cultivars have shorter needles. Spruces are monoecious, and male and female cones are produced on the same tree, but on separate branches. The female (seed bearing) cones are reddish brown, pendulous and 4-6 in (10-15 cm) long. Male cones are smaller, like catkins. 'Pyramidata' is broadly cone shaped, to 70 ft (21 m) tall. 'Virgata' (a.k.a. snake-branched spruce) has a sparse, irregular branching pattern. The very popular cultivar 'Nidiformis', also called bird's nest spruce, is a slow growing bushy shrub that grows with outward spreading branches leaving a hollow "nest" in the center of the bush; it gets about 5 ft (1.5 m) tall and 10-12 ft (3-3.7 m) wide. 'Inversa' is a weeping form with branches that droop downward. 'Little Gem' is a dense flat-topped bush with tiny needles. 'Reflexa' is a creeping groundcover which can be tied to a stake and allowed to droop. The dwarf cultivar, 'Clanbrassiliana' grows very slowly into a 3 ft (0.6 m) tall flat-topped mound. 'Pumila' (dwarf Norway spruce) is similar, to 7 ft (2.1 m) tall, but has horizontal lower branches and nearly vertical upper branches. 'Maxwellii' (Maxwell spruce) is another low growing, compact bush.
There are around 45 species of spruces, all native to the cool temperate regions of Asia, Europe and North America. Almost half the known species are native to China. Norway spruce is native to eastern and central Europe, north into southern Scandinavia. Norway spruce is possibly the most commonly planted conifer in North America.
Culture
The typical species form of Norway spruce is an important timber tree in its native land, harvested for pulp and general purpose construction. A resin extracted from the bark is called burgundy pitch and used in varnishes and medicines. Norway spruce is the traditional Christmas tree in Europe, and is also used for that purpose in North America. As an ornamental, Norway spruce is commonly cultivated as a specimen or in rows for screens or windbreaks. Bird's nest spruce and other dwarf cultivars of Norway spruce are often used as features in foundation plantings and rock gardens. Some of the dwarf cultivars are used in Bonsai.
Features Steve Christman 01/19/01; updated 9/10/03
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