Tamarack Tree Follow-up

Tamaracks are members of the larch family, and native larches can be widely found in our forests. These trees have needles, as pines and spruce do, but larch needles turn yellow and fall off each winter. This is pretty unusual for a tree with needles and many people mistake it for a disease or other plant problem.

On Saturday a caller was concerned about her Tamarack tree, but not for that reason. Larch needles are attached to the branches in clumps or “tufts”. Our caller was seeing branches that had single needles attached directly to the twigs – more like a Douglas fir.

I consulted several of the experts over at Portland Nursery (Michael and Jim) for some insight. First, there are a number of different types of larch and some of them look quite different than the most common ones. Perhaps our caller did not get the variety she expected.

Second, and most likely, the needle tufts do not develop until the second year. First year growth has the single-needle arrangement. The larches at the nursery have pretty much lost their needles, but I did get a photo that shows this, just a bit.

So, we should expect that there really isn’t a problem and the tree will develop its special look as it matures.

Thanks to all for the opportunity to learn something new!