Tamarack/American Larch (18-30")
Description
American larch or tamarack is a slender-trunked, conical tree, 50-75 ft. tall, with bright green, deciduous needles. The glossy needles appear in remarkably soft tufts in early spring. Deciduous tree with straight, tapering trunk and thin, open, conical crown of horizontal branches; a shrub at timberline. In autumn they color golden-yellow before falling to the ground.
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.