Description

Leaves: Needles deep grayish to bluish green in color, flat and hairless above; keeled with white bands below, 1" to 1-1/2" in length, 40-50 needles per tuft on short spurs; deciduous.

Twigs/buds: Twigs glaucous (light bluish-gray), reddish or dark brown; smooth, with or without soft brown hairs. Buds red-brown, small, egg-shaped to oblong or cone-shaped, resinous; scales bright brown, fringed with hairs, with outward curving tips.

Flowers/fruit: Flowers monoecious; female strobili on branchlets in early spring are red, pink, yellow, or green in color; male strobili are smaller and yellow. Fruit is a light brown cone, almost ball-shaped, 1" to 2" long, resembling a rosette when open; scales soft, fringed, 30 in number, with shorter bracts.

Bark: Gray, thin and scaly when young; thicker and fissured when older, with gray-brown outer bark; exposed inner bark red-brown.

Wood: Important; decay resistant, used for fences and construction; resinous.

General: Native to areas of Japan's mountains which have mild, humid climates. A medium or large tree, often reaching heights of 60' to 90' and widths of 25' to 40'. The habit is pyramidal and open; and the branches are long and upturned at the tips. A deciduous conifer -- it loses its needles every year. It has similar requirements to L. decidua, but grows better in milder, maritime climates. Prefers full sun and abundant water, but may survive on drier sites. Subject to the larch case-bearer, which turns the needles brown.

Landscape Use: Sometimes planted in Utah. The best ornamental of the larches, it is similar to L. decidua, but has more deeply blue-green needles and the tips of the smaller cone's scales are curved back, giving the cone a rosette appearance. Commonly cultivated. Zones 4-7.

Cultivars: 'Diana', 'Nana', 'Pendula'.
 

Characteristics