Norway Spruce - Picea abies

It is a large evergreen coniferous tree growing to between 115 and180 feet tall. The shoots are orange-brown and hairless and the leaves are needle-like, 12 to 24 mm long, quadrangular in cross-section (not flattened), and dark green on all four sides with inconspicuous lines. The cones are 9 to17 cm long (the longest of any spruce), and have bluntly to sharply triangular-pointed scale tips. They are green or reddish, maturing brown 5 to 7 months after pollination.

Sitka Spruce, and other ornamental Picea that may be planted in parks and gardens.  Similar to other Pinaceae species with needles borne singly, but Picea have needles on brown petiole-like pegs

Leaves 4-angled in x-section, with faint whitish stripes; cones 10-20cm

Photos of cones and details of needles 

Often planted, but does sometime regenerate in the wild.

All year round.

Evergreen.

Fairly widespread in Britain.

Occasional in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 64 of the 617 tetrads.