The leaves are needle-like with blunt tips,[7] 12–14 mm long, quadrangular in cross-section, and dark green on all four sides with inconspicuous stomatal lines.

Its eastern limit in Russia is hard to define, due to extensive hybridization and intergradation with the Siberian spruce, but is usually given as the Ural Mountains.

However, trees showing some Siberian spruce characters extend as far west as much of northern Finland, with a few records in northeast Norway.

Populations in southeast Europe tend to have on average longer cones with more pointed scales; these are sometimes distinguished as Picea abies var.

[12] Another spruce with smoothly rounded cone scales and hairy shoots occurs rarely in the Central Alps in eastern Switzerland.

[13] In North America, Norway spruce is widely planted, specifically in the Northeastern, Pacific Coast, and Rocky Mountain states, as well as in southeastern Canada.

In the northern US and Canada, Norway spruce is reported as invasive in some locations; however, it does not pose a problem in Zone 6 and up as the seeds have a significantly reduced germination rate in areas with hot, humid summers.

[3] Several cultivars have been selected as ornamentals ('Barrya', 'Capitata', 'Decumbens', 'Dumosa', 'Clanbrassiliana', 'Gregoryana', 'Inversa', 'Microsperma', 'Nidiformis', 'Ohlendorffii', 'Repens', 'Tabuliformis', 'Maxwellii', 'Virgata', 'Inversa', 'Pendula'), with a wide variety of sizes and shapes, from full-sized forest trees to extremely slow-growing, prostrate forms.

[25] One form of the tree called Haselfichte [de] (Hazel-spruce) grows in the European Alps and has been recognized by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage.

[29] In Finland, Norway spruce tips (Finnish: kuusenkerkkä) are used as a spice, for example, in syrup, herbal tea, alcohol, smoothies, salt, and desserts.

[33] A press release from Umeå University says that a Norway spruce clone named Old Tjikko, carbon dated as 9,550 years old, is the "oldest living tree".

Old Tjikko is one of a series of genetically identical clones growing from a root system, one part of which is estimated to be 9,550 years old based on carbon dating.

The oldest known individual tree (that has not taken advantage of vegetative cloning) is a Great Basin bristlecone pine over 5,000 years old (germination in 3051 BC).

A large proportion of the spruce genome consists of repetitive DNA sequences, including long terminal repeat transposable elements.

Despite recent advances in massively parallel DNA sequencing, the assembly of such a large and repetitive genome is a particularly challenging task, mainly from a computational perspective.