A large, fast-growing European evergreen conifer reaching 40-60 feet (sometimes far taller in age) with a broadly pyramidal crown and a distinctive habit: the main branches sweep upward or outward while the slender secondary branchlets hang straight down in graceful, drooping curtains. Stiff, four-sided dark-green needles clothe the twigs, and it bears the longest cones of any spruce — pendulous, cylindrical, 4-6 inches long, ripening from reddish to tan-brown. Long planted in North America for windbreaks, tall screens, Christmas trees, and timber, it is cold-hardy and adaptable in cool climates but is NOT heat-, drought-, or humidity-tolerant and falters toward the warm (zone 7) edge of its range.