Page 49 - Tạp chí bonsai cây cảnh BCI 2013Q3

Conifer by NatureLARCH
Deciduous Charm

Text and photos
by Danilo Scursatone, Italy

Translation by Danilo Scursatone
and Joe Grande

Larix decidua

he common larch or alpine larch, Larix decidua, is a coni-
fer belonging to the large family of Pinaceae, native of the
mountains of central Europe and widespread across the
TAlps and Carpathian Mountains. The feature that distin-
guishes it from most other conifers is that it totally loses its needle-
like foliage in winter. Even the inexperienced observer can identify
at first sight the larch among a mountain forest in its wintry dress.
The leaves of the larch are needle-like, tender, 2–3 cm long, distrib-
uted in clusters of 20–30 needles, arranged on short branches called
brachyblasts. The needles are green emerald in March, and become
darker green with the advance of the season and then transform into
a beautiful golden yellow in autumn before falling.
The larch is a monoecious tree, meaning they have separate male
flowers and female flowers on the same plant. Its flowering and
fruiting is not so frequent. It happens every 5–10 years on trees
with a minimum of 30–40 years of age, and we must consider that
the seeds produced by the cones in the first 80 years of the tree’s
life are sterile. Flowering takes place in the months of April to May,
just before the opening of the needles. The female flowers are oval
in shape of about 1 cm length of purple-red, while the male flowers
are less visible and smaller: 0.5 cm, of yellow color.

The male cones are yellow and deciduous after pollination that oc-
curs in the spring. The cones generated by female flower are green
and then, when ripe, light brown, conical-ovoid, 2–6 cm long, 1.5
to 2 cm wide, with 30–70 winged seeds that protrude from the base
scales, light green when immature, then brown violet.
The cones ripen in September to October and the propagation of
seeds, about 3–4 mm, occurs in October to November when the
cones open their side flaps and are ready to disperse. Wind, birds,
water and the favorable terrain will do the rest.
The larch, being a microthermal species, is very resistant to cold
and is able to survive at the extreme temperature of minus 50° C.

Forest of Larix decidua in summer-autumn, Colle Lombarda/ north Italy

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