Tamarack Cones in Winter
A String of Orange Cones
- colorful winter decorations
Tamarack, larch, juniper, hackmatack, whatever you call it, this tree is a botanical wonder.
It is an conifer but it loses its needles in winter. It replenishes its chlorophyll every year in new leaves just like a deciduous tree. It looks like its cousins, the evergreens, but really it isn't one.
Tamarack wood is sturdy and workable for everything from shipbuilding to snowshoes. The inner and outer bark, the needles and the sap provide medicines. The roots are strong for weaving baskets. The tender new shoots and the inner bark are good to eat.
And this tree is attractive year round. In spring and summer, its needles are soft and smooth, in fall, they take on a luminous yellow color, and in winter, the tamarack's branches and cones show the complex structure of the tree.
It is an conifer but it loses its needles in winter. It replenishes its chlorophyll every year in new leaves just like a deciduous tree. It looks like its cousins, the evergreens, but really it isn't one.
Tamarack wood is sturdy and workable for everything from shipbuilding to snowshoes. The inner and outer bark, the needles and the sap provide medicines. The roots are strong for weaving baskets. The tender new shoots and the inner bark are good to eat.
And this tree is attractive year round. In spring and summer, its needles are soft and smooth, in fall, they take on a luminous yellow color, and in winter, the tamarack's branches and cones show the complex structure of the tree.
