Picea abies

The Norway spruce is the second commonest tree species in Finland. When the continental glaciers thawed and withdrew, the spruce was the last tree species to spread into the country, from the east rather than from the west, which is where most Finnish species have come from. About 5000 years ago the cooling climate and increasing humidity favoured the spruce over its rival broadleaf species, which had arrived much earlier.

The columnar ‘weeping’ spruce is perhaps the most important of the special forms of conifer found in Finland. A rare, naturally occurring form of the ordinary Norway spruce (Picea abies), it has light, long, weeping branches. The best specimens grow as narrow pillars; their weeping branches hug the trunk, which is hidden behind their needles. Natural occurrences of weeping spruce can be found in several sites in Finland and elsewhere in Eurasia, where Norway spruce is common.