222 TREES IN WINTER 



AMERICAN LARCH 



Tamarack, Hackmatack, Black Larch, "Juniper. 



Larix laricina (Du Roi) Koch. 



L. americana Michx. 



HABIT — A tree 30-70 ft. in height, with a trunk diameter of 1-3 ft., 

 It high altitudes reduced to 1-2 feet in height; trunk erect continuous 

 into the crown, branches irregular or indistinctly whorled, in young 

 age and when crowded and in swamps forming a narrow symmetrical 

 pyramidal head, in old age becoming broader and of irregular form. 

 The Larch is the only New England cone-bearing tree that sheds its 

 leaves in the fall; specimens in winter consequently are frequently 

 mistaken for dead trees. 



BARK — On young trunks smooth, with age becoming roughened with 

 thin, close, reddish-brown, roundish scales. 



TAVIGS — Slender, smooth, pale orange colored to reddish-brown with 

 short lateral wart-like branches, with resinous taste. 



L.EAF-SCARS — Scattered on rapidly grown shoots, very numerous 

 and strongly decurrent, minute, triangular, with a single bundle-scar; 

 also on short wart-like branches, smaller and densely clustered. 



BUDS — Scattered along last season's twigs, on older growth at the 

 ends of the short lateral branches, small, about 1 mm. long, spherical, 

 reddish, shining. 



FRUIT — Ovate, oblong cones, about ^2-% inch long on short, stout 

 incurved stalks, persistent on trees throughout winter. SCALES — thin, 

 about a dozen or fewer in number. 



COMPARISONS — The American Larch or Tamarack as it is more com- 

 monly called by woodsmen is hardly to be confused with any other 

 tree except the European Larch ILarix decichia Mill.; L. europaea DC.]. 

 The European Larch is a species adapted to dryer situations than the 

 American form. It is readily distinguished by its stouter, yellower 

 twigs, larger cones, about 1 inch long, with numerous cone scales 

 (see lower twig in plate). 



DISTRIBUTION — Low lands, shaded hillsides, borders of ponds; in 

 New England, preferring cold swamps; sometimes far up mountain 

 slopes. Labrador, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, west to the Rocky 

 mountains; from the Rockies through British Columbia, northward along 

 the Yukon and Mackenzie systems, to the limit of tree growth beyond 

 the Arctic circle; south along the mountains to New Jersey and 

 Pennsylvania; west to Minnesota. 



IN NEW ENGLAND — Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont — abundant, 

 filling swamps acres in extent, alone or associated with other trees, 

 mostly Black Spruce; growing depressed and scattered on Katahdin at 

 an altitude of 4,000 ft.; Massachusetts — rather common at least north- 

 ward; Connecticut — absent near the coast; rare in the eastern part of 

 the state; Union, Tolland; becoming occasional westward and frequent 

 in Litchfield county; Rhode Island — not reported. 



WOOD — Very heavy, hard and strong, rather coarse-grained, very 

 durable in contact with soil, bright light red. with thin nearly white 

 sapwood; largely used for the upper knees of small vessels, fence posts, 

 telegraph poles, railroad ties, in cabinet making and for interior finish 

 of buildings. 



