Picea abies 'Ohlendorfii' is a compact, slow-growing, bushy selection of Norway spruce that is flat-topped and globose when young, becoming broadly conical with age. Branching is rather loose and somewhat open and foliage is species-typical. After 10 years of growth, a mature specimen will measure 40 inches (1 m) tall and wide, an annual growth rate of around 4 inches (10 cm).
- Gerd Krüsssmann in Manual of Cultivated Conifers, describes it as, "dwarf form, globose when young, but becoming broadly conical with age, branches ascending and spreading, densely branched, annual growth 3 to 6 cm."
- While the picture provided here shows a plant of medium density D.M. van Gelderen provides an excellent picture of a more characteristic form of this conifer in Conifers The Illustrated Encyclopedia.
- "If you like your plants neat and tidy, here is a plant you'll treasure. When young, it is a tight, squat, conical form that looks as if it has been carefully sheared by an artist with a passion for geometry. It attains this perfection with no pruning whatsoever. As it grows upward, it becomes a neat, semi-dwarf, conical tree suitable for a small yard."
This cultivar originated as a seedling selected in the early 1800s by
Th. Ohlendorff Nursery, Hamburg, Germany. The seed source was Nikita, Crimea, Russia.
