Tamarack larch

''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, West Virginia; there is also an isolated population in central Alaska. The word ''akemantak'' is an Algonquian name for the species and means "wood used for snowshoes".

Description

''Larix laricina'' is a small to medium-size boreal coniferous and deciduous tree reaching tall, with a trunk up to diameter. Tamaracks and larches (''Larix'' species) are deciduous conifers. The bark is tight and flaky, pink, but under flaking bark it can appear reddish. The leaves are needle-like, short, light blue-green, turning bright yellow before they fall in the autumn, leaving the pale pinkish-brown shoots bare until the next spring. The needles are produced spirally on long shoots and in dense clusters on long woody spur shoots. The cones are the smallest of any larch, only long, with 12-25 seed scales; they are bright red, turning brown and opening to release the seeds when mature, 4 to 6 months after pollination.

Key characteristics:
* The needles are normally borne on a short shoot in groups of 10–20 needles.
* The larch is deciduous and the needles turn yellow in autumn.
* The seed cones are small, less than long, with lustrous brown scales.
* Larch are commonly found in swamps, fens, bogs, and other low-land areas.

Distribution and ecology

Tamaracks are very cold tolerant, able to survive temperatures down to at least , and commonly occurs at the Arctic tree line at the edge of the tundra. Trees in these severe climatic conditions are smaller than farther south, often only tall. They can tolerate a wide range of soil conditions but grow most commonly in swamps, bogs, or muskegs, in wet to moist organic soils such as sphagnum, peat, and woody peat. They are also found on mineral soils that range from heavy clay to coarse sand; thus texture does not seem to be limiting. Although tamarack can grow well on calcareous soils, it is not abundant on the limestone areas of eastern Ontario.

Tamarack is generally the first forest tree to grow on filled-lake bogs. In the lake states, tamarack may appear first in the sedge mat, sphagnum moss, or not until the bog shrub stage. Farther north, it is the pioneer tree in the bog shrub stage. Tamarack is fairly well adapted to reproduce successfully on burns, so it is one of the common pioneers on sites in the boreal forest immediately after a fire.

The central Alaskan population, separated from the eastern Yukon populations by a gap of about , is treated as a distinct variety ''Larix laricina'' var. ''alaskensis'' by some botanists, though others argue that it is not sufficiently distinct to be distinguished.

Associated forest cover

Tamarack forms extensive pure stands in the boreal region of Canada and in northern Minnesota. In the rest of its United States range and in the Maritime Provinces, tamarack is found locally in both pure and mixed stands. It is a major component in the Society of American Foresters (SAF) forest cover types Tamarack and black spruce–tamarack.

Black spruce (''Picea mariana'') is usually tamarack's main associate in mixed stands on all sites. The other most common associates include balsam fir (''Abies balsamea''), white spruce (''Picea glauca''), and quaking aspen (''Populus tremuloides'') in the boreal region. In the better organic soil sites in the northern forest region, the most common associates are the northern white-cedar (''Thuja occidentalis''), balsam fir, black ash (''Fraxinus nigra''), and red maple (''Acer rubrum''). In Alaska, quaking aspen and tamarack are almost never found together. Additional common associates are American elm (''Ulmus americana''), balsam poplar (''Populus balsamifera''), jack pine (''Pinus banksiana''), paper birch (''Betula papyrifera''), Kenai birch (''B. papyrifera'' var. ''kenaica''), and yellow birch (''B. alleghaniensis'').

Tamarack stands cast light shade and so usually have a dense undergrowth of shrubs and herbs. Because the tree has an extensive range, a great variety of shrubs is associated with it. Dominant tall shrubs include dwarf and swamp birch (''Betula glandulosa'' and ''Betula pumila''), willows (''Salix'' spp.), speckled alder (''Alnus rugosa''), and red-osier dogwood (''Cornus stolonifera''). Low shrubs include bog Labrador tea (''Ledum groenlandicum''), bog-rosemary (''Andromeda glaucophylla''), leather leaf (''Chamaedaphne calyculata''), and small cranberry (''Vaccinium oxycoccos''). Characteristically the herbaceous cover includes sedges ''(Carex'' spp.), cottongrass ''(Eriophorum'' spp.), three-leaved false Solomonseal (''Maianthemum trifolium''), marsh cinquefoil (''Potentilla palustris''), marsh-marigold (''Caltha palustris''), and bogbean (''Menyanthes trifoliata''). Ground cover is usually composed of sphagnum moss ''(Sphagnum'' spp.) and other mosses.

Seed cones and pollen cones

Tamarack is monoecious. Male and female cones are small, either solitary or in groups of 2 or 3, and appear with the needles. Male cones are yellow and are borne mainly on 1- or 2-year-old branchlet