Tamarack
Larix laricina (DuRoi) Koch [Larix americana Michx.]
HABIT.—A tree sometimes 80-100 feet high, with a trunk diameter of 1-2 feet; forming a broad, open, irregular crown of horizontal branches.
LEAVES.—Scattered singly along the leading shoots or clustered on the short lateral branchlets; linear, with blunt apex; rounded above, keeled beneath; about 1 inch long; bright green; sessile. Deciduous in early autumn.
FLOWERS.—April-May, with the leaves, monoecious; the staminate sessile, subglobose, yellow, composed of many short-stalked anthers spirally arranged about a central axis; the pistillate oblong, short-stalked, composed of orbicular, green scales (subtended by red bracts) spirally arranged about a central axis.
FRUIT.—Autumn of first season, but persistent on the tree for a year longer; ovoid, obtuse, light brown, short-stalked cones, 1/2-3/4 inch long; seeds 1/8 inch long, with pale brown wings widest near the middle.
WINTER-BUDS.—Small, globose, lustrous, dark red.
BARK.—Twigs at first grayish, glaucous, later light orange-brown, and finally dark brown; red-brown and scaly on the trunk.
WOOD.—Heavy, hard, very strong, coarse-grained, very durable, light brown, with thin, nearly white sapwood.
DISTRIBUTION.—Common throughout the state.