Larch is a coniferous tree, beautiful and verycommon in the forests of Eastern and Western Siberia, in the Sayan Mountains, in the Altai and the Far East. It forms a vast magnificent light 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 larch cones are called.
Larch: General Information
The tree can be up to 400 years old. 800-year-old representatives are noted and registered.
Larch is a coniferous plant of the pine family. The most diverse representatives of this genus are common in most of the northern hemisphere.
Larch is an unusual conifer.This is a fast growing plant. Its unusualness is that for the winter all its needles fall off. The needles are soft and narrowly linear. The cones are ovoid and round. The whole genus of larches includes about 20 species.
Description
Это растение однодомное.The larch crowns are friable (conical in young), translucent by the sun. With age, they become ovoid and more rounded with a blunt tip. In places where there are constant winds, the crown is flag-shaped in shape or one-sided.
What are the bumps called?In larch, they differ in males (rounded or ovate), yellowish in color, and females in green or red-pink, which look very beautiful. Pollination occurs together with the blooming of needles or after that: in the south it lasts from April to May, in the north - in June. Ripening of cones occurs in the fall in the year of larch blooming. They have an oblong, slightly rounded shape, their length is up to 3.5 cm. Ripened larch cones either open immediately, or it happens after wintering, in early spring. They have only 3-4 seeds.
Larch seeds are small, egg-shaped, with wings tightly attached. Larch fruits appear only from the age of about 15 years.
Types of larches
In Russia, as noted, grows approximately20 species and hybrids of larch. The most famous are Daur and Siberian. All species grow mainly in Northern Europe, on the continent of America, and in the wild, and in a specially cultivated form.
Siberian is a tree growing up to 45 meters high. Light-looking, resistant to wind, frost and drought. Siberian larch is undemanding to the humidity of air and soil.
European - weeping tree shape, up to 30 m. This species is very durable.
The crown of such larch is mainly cone-shapedor wrong, with drooping branches. Her bark has a brown color. The size of the larch cones is up to 4 cm. The light green needles have a length of 10-40 mm. Her bark is thick, greyish-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.
Larch Daurskaya or Gmelina - prettytall tree (45 meters). Very winter-hardy, drought-resistant and soil-undemanding plant. The crown has a wide ovoid shape, and the young plant is pyramidal. Brown or reddish bark. Light green needles have a length of up to 3 cm. Larch cones have a size of up to 2.5 cm.
Weeping larch reaches a height of 25 m. Her shoots are pendant and bare. The bark is black and brown. Larch cones have a size of up to 2.5 cm in length.
American Larch - 25 meters hightree whose crown is cone-shaped or narrow-pyramidal. Perfectly tolerates excess moisture. The branches are slightly curved and hanging down. The light green needles are 3 cm long. Small, rather decorative cones of violet-red color, as they mature, they turn brown.
The cajander is close in many ways to the Dahurian larch. The tree is frost-resistant and can grow on poor soils. Its height is up to 30 meters. Larch cones are slightly oblate, spherical.
Cones of pine, spruce and larch
There are several differences among cones of conifers, and their similarity is that they are all monoecious.
Spruce has a cone-shaped crown with branches, down and completely covering the trunk of a tree. The fruits of her (cones) are also directed upside down.
Pine has a spreading crown with branches raised up. And her bumps look up or directed their heads 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 just above. They are the most elegant of all three types of trees.
Pine cones are kept on short petioles, cylindrical (up to 10 cm long and 4 cm thick). They ripen in the 3rd year, differ by hard woody scales.
Fir cones are formed by coveringspirally scales. They ripen in the first year. In their sinuses are 2 ovules. Larch scales are located in the middle between spruce and pine cones.
Conclusion
Larch is a very useful plant and is widelyused in traditional medicine. It should be noted that its needles are composed of essential oil, bark - organic acids, tannins, anthocyanins, catechins, flavonols, etc.
The most effective of all methods of reproduction - seed. Larch looks very beautiful and impressive during ripening.
