Trees to 15 m or more tall, narrowly conical to columnar. Young shoots yellowish to grey, mostly hairless. Buds 5-6 mm long, ovoid to spherical, scales shiny brown and bent back, rounded, not resinous. Leaves mostly 1-1.3 cm long, generally blunt-tipped, thick, often curving inwards, bluish green, parted below shoot. Cones 3-6 cm long, pale brown, scales rounded, thinly woody, margin more or less entire. Seed about 3 mm long, wing 1 cm long.
Grown mainly as the cultivars.
Grows naturally in N America near water, both inland and on the coast, also among rocks on low hills where it is a dominant forest species.
Shoots hairless; buds not resinous; leaves mostly blunt, blue, unpleasant-smelling.
NSW: Albury (Bot. Gds) ; Mt Tomah (Bot. Gds); Sydney (Royal Bot. Gds). TAS: Hobart (Royal Tasmanian Bot. Gds).
Source: (1995). Pinaceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 1, Ferns, conifers & their allies. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.
Like 'Albertiana Conica' but with smaller leaves and slower growth. Originated as a bud sport at the nursery of C. Streng Jr, Boskoop, Netherlands in 1960s.
Picea glauca 'Albertiana Conica'
Dense, conical, with pale green leaves. Raised at the Arnold Arboretum, Washington in 1930s.
Dwarf, regularly conical. Found in Canadian Rockies by Dr R. Rehder & J. G. Jack near Lake Laggan, Alberta, 1904.
Dense, round, slow-growing with large buds, light green early growth becoming bluish late in the season. Originated as a witches broom in Wayne, New Jersey, USA, 1959 and introduced by Verkades Nsy, Wayne.
Dwarf, globose, with flat sprays of foliage, buds large. Origin France nineteenth century.
A blue-leaved selection of 'Albertiana Conica' with the colour rather unstable. Origin USA c. 1986.
