Wikipedia states: It is a species of spruce native to northern North America, from Newfoundland west to Alaska, and south to northern New York, Minnesota and central British Columbia. This area is also known as the taiga forest. It is a slow-growing, small upright evergreen coniferous tree (rarely a shrub, having a straight trunk with little taper, a scruffy habit, and a narrow, pointed crown of short, compact, drooping branches with upturned tips. Through much of its range it averages 5–15 m tall with a trunk 15-50 cm diameter at maturity, though occasional specimens can reach 30 m tall and 60 cm diameter. The bark is thin, scaly, and grayish brown. The leaves are needle-like, 6-15 mm long, stiff, four-sided, dark bluish green on the upper sides, paler glaucous green below. The cones are the smallest of all of the spruces, 1.5-4 cm long and 1–2 cm broad, spindle-shaped to nearly round, dark purple ripening red-brown, produced in dense clusters in the upper crown, opening at maturity but persisting for several years. Natural hybridization occurs regularly with the closely related Picea rubens (Red Spruce), and very rarely with Picea glauca (White Spruce). It differs from Picea glauca (White Spruce) in having shorter needles, smaller and rounder cones, and a preference for wetter lowland areas. From true firs, such as Abies balsamea(Balsam Fir), it differs in having pendulous cones, persistent woody leaf-bases, and four-angled needles, arranged all round the shoots.

Blue-green foliage; bark pinkish, purplish-gray, flaky; prefers cold climates; in cultivation, distinctly cone-shaped, but more columnar in Canada; spruce beer is made from its leaves; native to northern North America, to Virginia in the mountains