Scientific Name
Picea abies ‘Norway Spruce’
The Norway spruce can be distinguished from the more common Colorado blue spruce in our region by its drooping branchlets, which hang from otherwise horizontal or slightly upswept main branches. Its seed cones are also noticeably longer than those of blue spruce, in fact the largest of any spruce species.
This tree is native to Scandinavia, the Baltic countries and extends eastward across much of Russia. In central and southern Europe, it occupies mountainous regions. With such a broad range, it is well adapted to cold winters. Around the world, it has become a widely planted ornamental conifer, likely more common overall than our native blue spruce. In the wild it can exceed 100 feet in height, though in cultivation it more often reaches around 60 feet; the Colorado champions stand at 72 and 64 feet. Several cultivars are in use, including a fastigiate, nearly columnar form that is also present on the Regis campus.
Individual Norway spruce trees can live for more than 500 years. There is also a clonal specimen of this species estimated to be over 9,000 years old, though that represents a different category of longevity than a single tree.