''Larix griffithii'', the Sikkim larch, is a species of

larch Larches are deciduous conifers in the genus ''Larix'', of the family Pinaceae (subfamily Laricoideae). Growing from tall, they are native to much of the cooler temperate northern hemisphere, on lowlands in the north and high on mountains furt ...

, native to the eastern

Himalaya The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 100 ...

in eastern

Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...

Sikkim Sikkim (; ) is a state in Northeastern India. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China in the north and northeast, Bhutan in the east, Province No. 1 of Nepal in the west and West Bengal in the south. Sikkim is also close to the Siligur ...

, western

Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainou ...

and southwestern China (

Xizang The Tibet Autonomous Region or Xizang Autonomous Region, often shortened to Tibet or Xizang, is a province-level autonomous region of the People's Republic of China in Southwest China. It was overlayed on the traditional Tibetan regions of Ü ...

), growing at in altitude. It is sometimes called the Himalayan larch, not to be confused with ''

Larix potaninii ''Larix potaninii'' is a species of larch conifer in the family Pinaceae. It is found in China and Nepal. The one of southernmost species of the genus ''Larix'', the range of ''Larix potaninii'' extends southward almost to 27° N. Varieties , Pl ...

var. himalaica'', which is generally known as the 'Langtang larch'.

Description

It is a medium-sized

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, afte ...

coniferous Conifers are a group of cone-bearing seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single extant class, Pinopsida. All extan ...

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated Plant stem, stem, or trunk (botany), trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondar ...

reaching tall, with a trunk up to in diameter. The crown is slender conic; the main branches are level to upswept, the side branchlets pendulous from them. The shoots are dimorphic, with growth divided into long shoots (typically long) and bearing several

bud In botany, a bud is an undeveloped or embryonic shoot and normally occurs in the axil of a leaf or at the tip of a stem. Once formed, a bud may remain for some time in a dormant condition, or it may form a shoot immediately. Buds may be spec ...

s, and short shoots only long with only a single bud. The

leaves A leaf ( : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, ste ...

are needle-like, light glaucous green, long; they turn bright yellow to orange before they fall in the autumn, leaving the pale yellow-brown shoots bare until the next spring. The

cones A cone is a three-dimensional geometric shape that tapers smoothly from a flat base (frequently, though not necessarily, circular) to a point called the apex or vertex. A cone is formed by a set of line segments, half-lines, or lines con ...

are erect, ovoid-conic, long, with 50-100 seed scales, each seed scale with a long exserted and reflexed basal bract; they are dark purple when immature, turning dark brown and opening to release the

seed A seed is an Plant embryogenesis, embryonic plant enclosed in a testa (botany), protective outer covering, along with a food reserve. The formation of the seed is a part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, the spermatophytes, includ ...

s when mature, 5–7 months after pollination. The old cones commonly remain on the tree for many years, turning dull grey-black. Larix griffithii female cone

Taxonomy

It has 2 accepted

variants Variant may refer to: In arts and entertainment * ''Variant'' (magazine), a former British cultural magazine * Variant cover, an issue of comic books with varying cover art * ''Variant'' (novel), a novel by Robison Wells * " The Variant", 2021 ...

; * ''Larix griffithii'' var. ''griffithii'' * ''Larix griffithii'' var. ''speciosa''

Synonyms A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are a ...

of the variants; include ''Abies griffithiana'' J. D. Hooker ex Lindley & Gordon and ''Larix griffithiana'' hort. ex Carrière. Trees to the northeast of the range in eastern Bhutan and Xizang have been separated as '' Larix kongboensis'' (Mill 1999); they differ in smaller cones long. This taxon has been accepted by the ''Flora of China'' but not widely elsewhere.

References and external links

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1768686 griffithii Flora of Northeast India Trees of Nepal Deciduous conifers