Picea abies 'Denudata' is a dwarf selection of Norway spruce with a straight trunk, sparse, snake-like branching with few branchlets. Needles are long, dense, and dark-green in color. Overall, its structure is intermediate between P. abies 'Cranstonii' and the virtually unbranched cultivar, 'Monstrosa.'
This cultivar is named for multiple plants found in more than one of the Baltic nations in the 1850s. This fact in itself should disqualify it from cultivar status. Élie-Abel Carrière first formally described it in 1867 in Traité Général des Conifères. In 1972, in Manual of Cultivated Cultivars, Gerd Krüsssmann acknowledged the cultivar name and description, but claimed that the plant was lost in cultivation. However, in 2011, Rich's Foxwillow Pines, a well-known conifer nursery in Illinois offered it for sale.
In the Latin language "denudata" translates into "naked," a reference to the plant's sparse branching.
