Picea abies 'Pyramidata' / Pyramidal Norway spruce

Picea abies 'Pyramidata' is used as a collective term that describes the myriad upright, narrowly conical selections of Norway spruce with fastigiate branching that exist in the international nursery trade. Such plants have been well-known and popular throughout history and no individual clone can be identified as the origin of them all. At some point taxonomists will formally assign these trees under a “form-status,” i.e. Picea abies forma pyramidata. However this has not yet happened. Below are notes from growers and botanical writers.

• In 1853, Father Armand David formally described it as Abies excelsa pyramidata in Rev. Hort.
• In 1885, Élie-Abel Carrière described it as Picea excelsa pyramidata in Traité Général des Conifères.
• In 1919, Alfred Rehder described it as Picea abies forma pyramidata in Journal of the Arnold Arboretum. By this point it had become quite clear that there were a number of similar and unrecognizable clones in the trade.
• Finally, in 1993 Humphrey Welch dismissed the name, claiming that, "there is no certainty of the authenticity of the name for plants being offered today."