Alberta Native Plant Council

Feature Plant

Tamarack
(Larix)

Tamarack needles turning brown, just before falling off each fall
Photo by M. Hayward

Winter is a time of leafless trees, except in the some regions of Alberta where most trees keep their needles through the winter, and discard them only after several years of use. One genus of conifer, Larix (tamarack), stands out against this green background, especially in the fall. Tamarack discard all their needles in the fall. The needles pictured here have faded to brown from the yellow of fall, and will be entirely replaced by new green needles in the spring. The needles are narrow and soft, and grow in bunches of 10 to 25 at the ends of stub branches. The cones persist for several years, but fallen seeds are viable for only a year.

Tamarack wood is hard and heavy, and naturally more resistant to decay in contact with soil. This may be an adaptation to the very moist, almost saturated soil conditions in which the trees grow. Tamarack often grows in muskeg, in association with black spruce, the only other evergreen tree commonly found in such moist conditions. As moisture levels increase, black spruce falls by the wayside and a muskeg may be dominated by tamarack. If conditions are very moist, no trees grow, but Labrador tea and dwarf birch, common associates of tamarack, cling to the drier tops of hummocks.

Tamarack are shade-intolerant and they grow in places where conditions are so severe that competition is limited. Tamarack can grow in drier soils, but don't normally because other species, incapable of growing in muskeg, provide too much shade.

Tamarack cones
Photo by M. Hayward