Japanese Larch

(Larix kaempreni)

Date Planted:  October 2000

Family:  Pinaceae

Hardiness:  Hardy in the Gorham, ME area;  Zone 4-7

Mature Dimensions:  70-150 feet tall with a 20- 40 foot width

Habit:  Very open and pyramidal; swooping, pendulous branches

Bark:  On younger trees, bark is thin and scaly; on mature trees, grayish-brown and thick with deep fissures that expose reddish-brown inner bark

Buds:  Conical and pointed; resinous and minute in size, with brown scales

Leaves/Needles:  Very narrow (around 1/20^th of an inch), 1-1 ½ inches long.  Deep green deciduous needles are on short spurs in clumps of 40 or more; turn yellow-gold in autumn

Flowers:  Monoecious; ½ inch long female strobilli are greenish-yellow and egg shaped, male are yellow and smaller and cover the tree’s branches

Fruit:  1-1 ½ inch by 1-1 ½ inch cones are on stalks; scales are keeled, giving cones a rosette shape

Pests/ Diseases:  Larch case-bearer, larch sawfly, wooly larch aphid, Japanese beetle; canker, needle rusts

Reference Pages:  Dirr M.1998. Manual of Woody Landscape Plants. Stipes Publishing Co., Champaign IL.