Serbian spruce
Needles attached singly via a woody 'peg' in common with other Picea species. Needles strongly discolorous; dark green on the outer surface, and bright white on the inner. Bright white inner (upper) surfaces often visible at the shoot tips from a distance giving a frosted appearance. Shoot hairy. As with all Picea species the cones hang down from branches when mature. Spindle-ovoid in shape, individual scales stiff with rounded tips. They're produced at the very top of the crown and often persist for a couple of years.
The overall form of mature trees is distinctive; the crown is tall and narrow, the branches at first appressed to the trunk as they descend then turning suddenly out and up - reminiscent of ski-jump ramps.
Serbian spruce has a very small native distribution, restricted to the valley of the Drina river in Bosnia-Herzgovina and Serbia. Potentially as few as 1000 individual trees remain in the wild. The species was introduced to the British Isles in 1889 and it is most likely to be seen in parks, large gardens and collections though it has seen very limited use in forestry.