Picea abies 'Crippsii' / Cripps' Norway spruce

Picea abies 'Crippsii' is a squatly conical selection of Norway spruce with thin, spreading, acutely angled branches and thin, finely textured, yellowish green needles. After 10 years of growth, a mature specimen will measure 4 feet (1.3 m) tall and 5 feet (1.6 m) wide, an annual growth rate of 4 to 5 inches (10 -12 cm).

This cultivar originated in the mid-1800s at T. Cripps & Sons nursery, United Kingdom. At the time, they listed it as Abies excelsa var. brevifolia. When Abies excelsa was redescribed as Picea abies in 1923, the cultivar name, 'Crippsii' was established to distinguish this singular clone from the myriad clones lumped into P. abies 'Brevifolia.'