Larch is a coniferous tree, beautiful and very common in the forests of Eastern and Western Siberia, in the Sayan Mountains, Altai and the Far East. It forms vast magnificent bright forests. In fairly favorable conditions, larch can grow in height by more than 40 meters and reach a trunk diameter of up to 1 meter or more.
In this article, you can learn about what this amazing tree is, and also consider its features and how the cones of larch are called.
Larch: general information
The age of the tree can reach 400 years. Representatives and 800-year-olds have been noted and registered.
Larch is a coniferous plant in the pine family. The most diverse representatives of this genus are distributed in most of the northern hemisphere.
Larch is an unusual conifer. This is a fast growing plant. Its peculiarity is that all its needles fall for the winter. The needles are soft and narrowly linear. Cones are ovoid and rounded. In total, the larch genus includes approximately 20 species.
Description
This is a monoecious plant. Larch crowns are loose (cone-shaped in young), translucent by the sun. They with age acquire an ovoid and more rounded shape with a blunt apex. In places where constant winds are present, the crown is flag-shaped in shape or one-sided.
What are the cones called? In larch, they differ in male (round or ovoid), yellowish in color, and female - green or red-pink, which look very beautiful. Pollination occurs along with the opening of needles or after that: in the south it lasts from April to May, in the north - in June. Cones ripening occurs in autumn in the year of larch flowering. They have an oblong, slightly rounded shape, their length is up to 3.5 cm. The ripened larch cones either immediately open, or this happens after wintering, in early spring. They have only 3-4 seeds.
Larch seeds are small, egg-shaped, with wings tightly attached. Fruits in larch appear only from the age of about 15 years.
Types of Larch
In Russia, as noted, about 20 species and hybrids of larch grow. The most famous are Daursky and Siberian. All species grow mainly in Northern Europe, on the American continent, and in the wild, and in a specially cultivated form.
Siberian is a tree growing up to 45 meters tall. Photophilous species, resistant to wind, frost and drought. Siberian larch is undemanding to air and soil humidity.
European is a weeping tree up to 30 m high. This species is very durable.
The crown of such a larch is generally conical or irregular, with drooping branches. Her bark is brown. The size of cones in larch is up to 4 cm. Light green needles have a length of 10-40 mm. Her bark is thick, grayish brown. The needles collected in bundles have a length of up to 13-45 mm. Their color is light gray-green. Seeds ripen in September.
Daurian larch, or Gmelin, is a rather tall tree (45 meters). Very winter-hardy, drought-resistant and undemanding to soils plant. Crohn has a broad ovoid shape, and a young plant - pyramidal. Brown or reddish bark. Light green needles are up to 3 cm long. Larch cones are up to 2.5 cm in size.
Weeping larch reaches a height of 25 m. Its shoots are hanging and bare. The bark is black and brown. Larch cones are up to 2.5 cm long.
American larch is a 25-meter-tall tree whose crown is cone-shaped or narrow-pyramidal. It tolerates excess moisture. The branches are slightly curved and hanging down. Light green needles are 3 cm long. Small, rather decorative cones of violet-red color, they turn brown as they mature.
Kayandera is close in many respects to Daursky larch. The tree is frost-resistant and can grow on poor soils. Its height is up to 30 meters. Larch cones are slightly flattened, spherical.
Cones of pine, spruce and larch
There are several differences among cones of coniferous tree species, and the similarity is that they are all monoecious.
Spruce has a cone-shaped crown with branches down and completely covering the tree trunk. Its fruits (cones) are also directed downward by the tops.
The pine tree has a spreading crown with branches raised up. And her bumps look up or are directed by their tops to the sides.
The external difference between the cones of these three trees is mainly in their color and size.
Larch cones are described in more detail a little higher. They are the most elegant of all three species of trees.
Pine cones are kept on short petioles, cylindrical (length up to 10 cm and thickness up to 4 cm). They ripen in the 3rd year, differ in woody hard scales.
Fir cones are formed by hiding spirally arranged scales. They ripen in the first year. In their sinuses are 2 ovules. Larch flakes in their density are in the middle between the cones of spruce and pine.
