Alternate name: American Larch
Family: Pinaceae, Pine view all from this family
Description Deciduous tree with straight, tapering trunk and thin, open, conical crown of horizontal branches; a shrub at timberline.
Height: 40-80' (12-24 m).
Diameter: 1-2' (0.3-0.6 m).
Needles: deciduous; 3/4-1" (2-2.5 cm) long, 1/32" (1 mm) wide. Soft, very slender, 3-angled; crowded in cluster on spur twigs, also scattered and alternate on leader twigs. Light blue-green, turning yellow in autumn before shedding.
Bark: reddish-brown; scaly, thin.
Twigs: orange-brown; stout, hairless, with many spurs or short side twigs.
Cones: 1/2-3/4" (12-19 mm) long; elliptical; rose red turning brown; upright, stalkless; falling in second year; several overlapping rounded cone-scales; paired brown long-winged seeds.
Habitat Wet peaty soils of bogs and swamps; also in drier upland loamy soils; often in pure stands.
Range Across N. North America near northern limit of trees from Alaska east to Labrador, south to N. New Jersey, and west to Minnesota; local in N. West Virginia and W. Maryland; from near sea level to 1700-4000' (518-1219 m) southward.
Discussion One of the northernmost trees, the hardy Tamarack is useful as an ornamental in very cold climates. Indians used the slender roots to sew together strips of birch bark for their canoes. Roots bent at right angles served the colonists as "knees" in small ships, joining the ribs to deck timbers. The durable lumber is used as framing for houses, railroad cross-ties, poles, and pulpwood. The larch sawfly defoliates stands in infrequent years, causing damage or death.
