Tamarack
| Tamarack larch | |
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| Tamarack larch in fall colors, with black spruce in the background | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Division: | Pinophyta |
| Class: | Pinopsida |
| Order: | Pinales |
| Family: | Pinaceae |
| Genus: | Larix |
| Species: | L. laricina |
| Binomial name | |
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Larix laricina (Du Roi) K. Koch |
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| Natural range of Larix laricina | |
| Synonyms | |
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Larix laricina, commonly known as the tamarack,hackmatack,eastern larch,black larch,red larch,American larch or juniper. is a species of larch native to Canada, from eastern Yukon and Inuvik, Northwest Territories east to Newfoundland, and also south into the upper northeastern United States from Minnesota to Cranesville Swamp, Maryland; there is also an isolated population in central Alaska. The word tamarack is the Algonquian name for the species and means "wood used for snowshoes."
Larix laricina is a small to medium-size boreal coniferous and deciduous tree reaching 10–20 metres (33–66 ft) tall, with a trunk up to 60 centimetres (24 in) diameter. Tamaracks and Larches (Larix species) are deciduous conifers. The bark is tight and flaky, pink, but under flaking bark it can appear reddish. The leaves are needle-like, 2–3 cm (0.8–1.2 in) short, light blue-green, turning bright yellow before they fall in the autumn, leaving the pale pinkish-brown shoots bare until the next spring. The needles are produced spirally on long shoots and in dense clusters on long woody spur shoots. The cones are the smallest of any larch, only 1–2.3 cm (0.4–0.9 in) long, with 12-25 seed scales; they are bright red, turning brown and opening to release the seeds when mature, 4 to 6 months after pollination.
Key characteristics:
Tamaracks are very cold tolerant, able to survive temperatures down to at least −65 °C (−85 °F), and commonly occurs at the Arctic tree line at the edge of the tundra. Trees in these severe climatic conditions are smaller than farther south, often only 5 m (15 ft) tall. They can tolerate a wide range of soil conditions but grow most commonly in swamps, bogs, or muskeg in wet to moist organic soils such as sphagnum peat and woody peat. They are also found on mineral soils that range from heavy clay to coarse sand; thus texture does not seem to be limiting. Although tamarack can grow well on calcareous soils, it is not abundant on the limestone areas of eastern Ontario.
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Wikipedia