Each dark green needle grows singly on its own small woody peg along the shoot. When the needles drop, the pegs stay behind and leave the twig rough.
Introduced, rarely naturalised · Up to 50 m
Norway spruce
Picea abies · Pinaceae
Also called Christmas tree or spruce fir
Norway spruce is the traditional Christmas tree. Its needles sit singly on tiny woody pegs and roll between finger and thumb. Its long cones hang straight down.
Often mistaken for European larch. How to tell them apart →Know it byNeedlesSingle needles on woody pegs, which stay when the needles drop.
ConesLong hanging cones that fall whole, often found under the tree.
ShapeA narrow dark spire, its side twigs hanging down.
NeedlesSingle needles on woody pegs, which stay when the needles drop.ConesLong hanging cones that fall whole, often found under the tree.ShapeA narrow dark spire, its side twigs hanging down.Then check · BarkCoppery brown and finely shredding for many years, then grey and cracked into small rounded plates on old trees.
How to identify a Norway spruce
On older trees, long, slender cones hang straight down from the branches and ripen brown. They fall whole, so there are usually some lying under the tree.
On an older tree the side twigs hang straight down from the branches. From further off, the whole tree makes a neat, narrow, dark spire.
Learn the Norway spruce in TreelyEvery part through the year, and a short round each day until you know it.Get Treely
Every part, in photographs
dawn2022, CC BY 4.0
dawn2022, CC BY 4.0
gwynmwilliams, CC BY 4.0When to look
JFMAMJJASOND
In leaf
Flowers
Cones
In leaf: all year · Flowers: April to July · Cones: all year
Where you’ll find it
Forestry plantations throughout Britain, most of all in the wetter uplands, and parks and gardens everywhere. It also turns up in small town gardens, where Christmas trees are planted out and seldom do well.
What it’s mistaken for
Norway spruce or European larch?Both are plantation conifers of much the same outline.How the needles sit→
Norway spruce or Scots pine?Both are big planted conifers.Fallen cone→
- Sitka spruceBoth are big forestry spruces on pegged shoots. Leaf. Norway spruce: four-sided, turning freely. Sitka spruce: flat, staying flat, white beneath.
- Noble firBoth are big conifers of the wetter west, and both are sold as Christmas trees. Leaf. Norway spruce: dark green, stiff and sharp. Noble fir: bluish grey on both faces, blunt at the tip.
- YewBoth are dark evergreens with needles. Leaf. Norway spruce: four-sided and stiff, sharp enough to prick. Yew: flat and soft, bending under a finger.
In the app
There’s more of the Norway spruce in Treely
- Every part, through the yearLeaves, bark, buds, flowers and fruit, photographed in every season
- Its lookalikes, side by sideThe checks that settle it, part by part
- A short round each dayUntil you know the Norway spruce on sight, from any side
- Name it from a photoA leaf, the bark or a flower, and Treely tells you which tree
Free to download.
Every fact on this page is checked against the Collins Tree Guide, last in November 2026. Spotted something that looks wrong in front of a real tree? Tell us. How we check.
Photographs: gwynmwilliams (CC BY 4.0), megachile (CC0), steve_mcwilliam (CC0), dawn2022 (CC BY 4.0), dsykodave (CC0), Jarro Nevsbaru (CC BY 4.0). With thanks to everyone who shares their photographs on iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons.