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Tamarack (Larch)

Larix laricina

Traditional Indigenous Names 6

Cree: Wákinátik
Ojibwe: Mashkiigwaatig
Ojibwe-Cree: Mashkiikwaahtik
Dene: Nidheh
Michif: Tamarack

Summary from Wikipedia 7

Larix laricina, commonly known as the tamarack, hackmatack, eastern larch, black larch, red larch, or American larch, is a species of larch native to Canada, from eastern Yukon and Inuvik, Northwest Territories east to Newfoundland, and also south into the upper northeastern United States from Minnesota to Cranesville Swamp, Maryland; there is also an isolated population in central Alaska. The word tamarack is the Algonquian name for

Easy identifiers 6

Tamarack can easily be identified by the way their needles grow. The needles on a Tamarack grow in clusters with 12 to 20 needles per cluster. This type of growth is most evident in the spring when the Tamarack is growing back its foliage and the needles are all starting to grow.

Form 6

A small tree with an open, light-green, usually symmetrical crown. The only native Manitoba conifer that loses its needles each autumn.

Twigs 6

Alternate, slender, flexible, slightly hairy, light-brown but darkening with age; roughened by thin scales with upturned tips. Buds with numerous small scales, elevated on spurs on older branches.

Leaves 6

Needle-like, 20 - 50 millimetres (3/4 - 1 1/4 inches) long, in sheathless clusters of 12 to 20 from spurs on older branches, soft, flexible, pale green in summer and turning yellow in autumn.

Flowers 6

With leaves, solitary on short spurs, yellow or red, small, semi-circular.

Fruit 6

Erect, egg-shaped brownish cone 1 - 5 centimetres (1/2 - 3/4 inch) long, composed of about 20 rounded thin scales.

Occurrence 6

In bogs and wet habitats throughout most of the forested region.

Fun facts 6

Tamarack is the only native Manitoban tree that loses its needles every fall and regrows them in the spring. Tamarack has strong, rot resistant roots that were often used by Indigenous people to join materials together.

Sources and Credits

  1. (c) Manitoba Forestry, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Manitoba Forestry
  2. (c) Aaron Carlson, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), https://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/6218064093/
  3. (c) Jay Sturner, some rights reserved (CC BY), https://www.flickr.com/photos/50352333@N06/4645030528/
  4. (c) Nicholas A. Tonelli, some rights reserved (CC BY), https://www.flickr.com/photos/nicholas_t/17175125770/
  5. (c) Eli Sagor, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://www.flickr.com/photos/7357861@N03/519865739
  6. (c) Manitoba Forestry, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)
  7. Adapted by Manitoba Forestry from a work by (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larix_laricina

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