Outstanding Features:
Fine, soft green foliage and golden yellow fall color. Tolerance to poor drainage.

Description:
Height: 40-70'
Width: 20-40'
Hardiness Zone: 2a-4a depending on species.

Larch is one of the few conifers that loses its foliage each year. The soft, bright green needles emerge in spring. Needles turn a spectacular bright golden yellow in late autumn. Cones are small and light brown. Larch is pyramidal when young, becoming more irregular and wider with age. Branches arise horizontally from the trunk.

Requirements and Culture:
Although the natural habitat for Larch is boggy sites, it performs well in upland sites in the landscape and is fairly tolerant of drought. Quite tolerant of poorly drained soils.

Limitations:
No serious insect or disease problems.

Species and Selected Cultivars:

L. decidua ­ European Larch is a large growing species with a broad pyramidal form becoming wider and more irregular as an old specimen. It has graceful pendulous branchlets. It is an excellent landscape tree where space permits. Hardy to zone 3a.

L. kaempferi ­ Japanese Larch is similar in appearance to European Larch. It is graceful and open with a pyramidal habit of growth. Hardy to zone 4a.

L. laricina ­ American Larch or Tamarack has a narrow pyramidal crown. It is native in boggy areas from Alaska, Canada, Minnesota eastward to Pennsylvania. It has less landscape merit than the European or Japanese Larch but can still be effectively used in mass plantings. Hardy to zone 2.

Photo Credit: 1 Bailey Nurseries, Inc.; 2 MLA.

Minnesota Power | University of Minnesota | Northern States Power Company

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