Picea abies 'Clanbrassiliana' is a dwarf form of Norway spruce with a more-or-less "beehive"-shaped growth habit. Old plants are seldom over 4.5 feet (1.5 m) tall with an annual growth rate of about 0.8 to 2 inches (2 - 5 cm). The original plant is about 10 feet (3 m) high and 180 years old! Its branches are thin and flexible, light gray-brown above, cream-white to greenish-white beneath, glossy, and glabrous.
'Clanbrassiliana' is the very first named dwarf conifer and for that reason alone it is a very important cultivar for the collector. The original plant was found around 1780 on the Moira Estate, near Belfast, Northern Ireland. Lord Clanbrassil brought it to his country residence in Tollymore, Country Down where to this day the mother plant still flourishes. Around 1820, the Loddiges Nursery of Hackney, Great Britain introduced it to the nursery trade.
