Habitat

• native to North and Central Europe
• Zone 2

Habit and Form

• deciduous conifer
• 80' to 100' tall by 20' to30' wide
• pyramidal in habit with horizontal branches and weeping branchlets
• becomes more irregular with age
• fine to medium texture, coarse in winter
• moderate growth rate

Summer Foliage

• soft, flat needles
• 1" to 1.25" long
• bright green in spring, darkening with maturity
• found in groups on spurs or in a spiral arrangement down long branches

Autumn Foliage

• needles turn yellow before dropping
• typically showy

Flowers

• monoecious
• both male and female strobili cover tree in early spring
• female flowers: egg-shaped and about 0.25 to 0.75" long, in reds, pinks, yellows, or green
• male flowers: smaller and yellow
• moderately attractive

Fruit

• purple cones dry to brown
• young cones somewhat showy
• ovoid, 1" to 1.5" long
• scales pubescent on backside
• scales are overlapped, but not reflexed
• cones are persistent

Bark

• grayish brown outer bark
• loose elongated plates reveal a reddish inner bark
• young stems are yellowish and furrowed

Culture

• easily transplanted when dormant
• well-drained, slightly acidic to neutral soil is best, but can tolerate poorily-drained soils
• full sun
• tolerant of air polution and wind

Landscape Uses

• screen
• specimen
• park tree

Liabilities

• soil compaction can be detrimental
• larch case-bearer and woolly larch aphid
• accumulation of cones and twig debris on ground

ID Features

• spurs on branches
• cones are not reflexed
• cones are persistent on tree

Propagation

• by seeds
• cultivars by grafting

Cultivars/Varieties

While many cultivars exist, the only types available commercially are weeping cultivars.

'Pendula' - This cultivar is an umbrella for various pendulous forms which are usually grafted on a standard to form a small weeping tree.

'Varied Directions' - A unique plant developed by Dr. Sid Waxman of the University of Connecticut, this cultivar forms a weeping, spreading plant with main branches that radiate out in an irregular pattern (hence the name). The ultimate form of this plant seems to depend on the graft height, as it may form a prostrate shrub or small tree.