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Trees and Shrubs of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden

Common
Name

Scientific
Name

Plant
Family

Garden
Location

Flowering
Season
Tamarack
Larix laricina (Du Roi) K. Koch
Pine (Pinaceae)
Woodland
Spring to Fall
Other names and notes

(Larch). A conifer of Minnesota lowlands and bogs that has the distinction of being deciduous. Tree height can reach 40 to 80 feet with a straight trunk, diameter of 1 to 2 feet. The crown is a narrow pyramid. It self prunes and older trees will be bare for much of the lower trunk. Bark is reddish brown, thin, smooth when young, then scaly. Leaves: The new needle growth begins in early spring, forming, after the first year, as tight spirals of 10 to 20 needles on short spur branches. Leader twigs will have single needles arranged alternately. Needles are 3/4-1" long and 1/32" wide, very soft and appearing flat but actually 3-angled. The needles turn gold in the Autumn and by spring are usually dropped or blown away by winter winds. Flowers: Tamarack is monoecious, that is, it has separate male and female flowers. Male flowers yellowish and are rounded at first, appearing near the branch tips. Female flowers are initially rose-pink and then turning brown into egg-shaped, upright cones that are small, 1/2 - 3/4," with very short stalks, and falling in the second year. They contain paired brown long-winged seeds that are usually wind dispersed before the cone falls from the tree. Seeds are only viable for one year. Cone production only begins around 15 years of age, but in dense groups, not till 40 or 50 years of age. Twigs are stout, hairless, orangish-brown with many short spurs.

Habitat: Tamarack is found in wet to moist poorly drained soils in cold climates. It is not tolerant of shade and is often the first tree to colonize an open area. The root system is very shallow, but broader than the crown. Older trees are subject to infestation and defoliation by the Larch sawfly (Pristiphora erichsonii) and by the Larch casebearer moth (Coleophora laricella). Former Gardener Cary George remarked "I think the sea foam green needles in the spring and their golden hue in the fall are one of the prime visual delights of the Garden." (Fringed Gentian™, Vol. 50 #1)
Larch
Larch buds
Above: By the end of May the needles are fully formed. The clusters of 10 to 20 grow from short spur shoots, that remain on the branches providing easy identification of this species.
Above: Fresh green shoots beginning to grow from the short spur shoot of the branches and twigs in the later part of April.
Below: Flowers and Cone Production
Larch female flower
 Larch female flower
Above left and right: The egg-shaped female flower is rosy-pink initially. Below left: The maturing cones, which are only 3/4-1" high on very short stalks. Below right: The yellowish male flower.
Larch female cones Larch male flower
Larch in Spring
Tamaracks in summer
Above: The stand of almost bare Tamarack trees in the marsh area of the Woodland Garden in early April as the buds are beginning to put forth new needles. Note the slim trunk diameter.
Above: In late summer the tall Tamaracks still show there green needles when other vegetation is turning to fall color.
Below: After most other trees have dropped their leaves, the Tamaracks have turned to a golden yellow before the onset of winter. Some needles will remain until spring.
 
Larch in Woodland marsh  

Notes: This plant is indigenous to the Garden area. Eloise Butler catalogued it on April 29, 1907. Martha Crone planted a number of them in her first years as Curator. The marsh area of Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden was originally a Tamarack Swamp. Replacements were needed as severe wind storms of 1926 and 1927 had destroyed most of the Tamaracks in the Garden and a saw fly infestation took care of the remainder. Seven small ones were transplanted from the Quacking Bog in 1934; one in 1935, 4 in 1936, 1 in 1938. The larger specimens growing now could be some of those trees. The small group of trees is located at the north end of the bog path near guidebook stations 23 to 25. Since the early 1980s, trees have purchased to restore the tree canopy of the woodland garden after the loss of all the elms and the removal of Buckthorn. Tamaracks have been included. Thirty were planted in 2010. In the United States, Minnesota is the western most outpost of this species, growing around the Great Lakes and up to New England. It is primarily a tree of the Canadian boreal forests.

Lore and uses: The wood of old trees is very durable, used for framing houses, railroad ties, poles, etc. Early New England ship builders used the roots as "knees" in building small boats. There is also medicinal use. Densmore (ref. #5) in her study of the Minnesota Chippewa reports that finely chopped inner bark, fresh or dried, was useful on burns if applied in the morning, then partially washed off at night and renewed. The bark was also said to used for a laxative, a tonic and a diuretic. The active ingredient is a volatile oil that contains pinene, larixine and the ester bornylacetate.

  
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References: Plant characteristics are generally from sources 15, 16, 30, 31, 33, W2 & W3. Distribution principally from W2 and also 31, 34 and W1. Planting history generally from 1, 4 & 4a. Other sources by specific reference. See Reference List for details.  
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