Wednesday, May 18, 2016

larches-wikipedia

Here is another term I hadn't heard before. I have lived around Redwoods, Pines, Oaks and ferns and Red Fir and White Fir trees but I had never heard of a Larch before so this is pretty interesting to me to discover this now.

begin quote from:
larches

Larch

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Larch (disambiguation).

Larch

Larix decidua in autumn
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Pinophyta
Class:	Pinopsida
Order:	Pinales
Family:	Pinaceae
Genus:	Larix Philip Miller
Species
About 10–14; see text

Larches are conifers in the genus Larix, in the family Pinaceae. Growing from 20 to 45 m tall (65 to 147 ft), ^[1] they are native to much of the cooler temperate northern hemisphere, on lowlands in the north and high on mountains further south. Larches are among the dominant plants in the boreal forests of Siberia and Canada.
Although they are conifers, larches are deciduous trees that lose their leaves in the autumn. The shoots are dimorphic, with leave borne singly on long shoots typically 10–50 centimetres long^[2]^:47 and bearing several buds, and in dense clusters of 20-50 needles on short shoots^[2] only 1–2 mm long with only a single bud. The leaves are needle-like, 2–5 centimetres long, slender (under 1 cm wide). The needles are deciduous, turning yellow and falling singly in the late autumn, leaving the trees leafless through the winter.
The female cones of larches cones are erect, small, 1–9 cm long, green or purple, ripening brown 5–8 months after pollination; in about half the species the bract scales are long and visible, and in the others, short and hidden between the seed scales. Those native to northern regions have small cones (1–3 cm) with short bracts, with more southerly species tending to have longer cones (3–9 cm), often with exserted bracts, with the longest cones and bracts produced by the southernmost species, in the Himalayas.^{[citation needed]}

Species and classification

There are eleven accepted species of larch:^[3]

Larix czekanowskii Szafer
Larix decidua Mill. (syn. L. europaea D.C.) European larch. Mountains of central Europe.
Larix gmelinii (Rupr.) Kuzen. (syn. L. dahurica) Dahurian larch. Plains of central and eastern Siberia.
Larix griffithii Hook.f. (syn. L. griffithiana) Himalayan larch. Mountains of eastern Himalaya
Larix kaempferi (Lamb.) Carr.(syn. L. leptolepis) Japanese larch. Mountains of central Japan.
Larix laricina (Du Roi) K.KochTamarack larch or American larch. Parts of Alaska and throughout Canada and the northern United States from the eastern Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic shore.
Larix lyallii (Parl.) Subalpine larch. Mountains of northwest United States and southwest Canada, at very high altitude.
Larix mastersiana Rehder & E.H.Wilson Masters' larch. Mountains of western China.
Larix occidentalis Nutt. Western larch. Mountains of northwest United States and southwest Canada, at lower altitudes.
Larix potaninii Batalin Chinese larch. Mountains of southwestern China (Sichuan, northern Yunnan).
Larix sibirica Ledeb. Siberian larch. Plains of western Siberia.

In the past, the cone bract length was often used to divide the larches into two sections (sect. Larix with short bracts, and sect. Multiserialis with long bracts), but genetic evidence^[4] does not support this division, pointing instead to a genetic divide between Old World and New World species, with the cone and bract size being merely adaptations to climatic conditions. More recent genetic studies have proposed three groups within the genus, with a primary division into North American and Eurasian species, and a secondary division of the Eurasian into northern short-bracted species and southern long-bracted species;^[5] there is some dispute over the position of Larix sibirica, a short-bracted species which is placed in the short-bracted group by some of the studies and the long-bracted group by others.
Most if not all of the species can be hybridised in cultivation.
Currently-accepted hybrids are:^[3]

Larix x lubarskii Sukaczev
Larix x maritima Sukaczev
Larix x polonica Racib.

A well-known hybrid, the Dunkeld larch Larix × marschlinsii (syn. L. × eurolepis, an illegitimate name), which arose more or less simultaneously in Switzerland and Scotland when L. decidua and L. kaempferi hybridised when planted together, is still treated as unresolved.^[3]
Larch is used as a food plant by the larvae of a number of Lepidoptera species—see list of Lepidoptera that feed on larches.

Siberian larch.
Male (above) and female (below right) cones of Japanese larch emerging in spring.
European larch foliage and cones.
European larch male "flowers" or strobili.

Diseases

Larches are prone to the fungal canker disease Lachnellula willkommii (larch Canker); this is particularly a problem on sites prone to late spring frosts, which cause minor injuries to the tree allowing entry to the fungal spores. In Canada, this disease was first detected in 1980 and is particularly harmful to an indigenous species larch, the tamarack, killing both young and mature trees.^[6]
Larches are also vulnerable to Phytophthora ramorum. In late 2009 the disease was first found in Japanese larch trees in the English counties of Devon, Cornwall and Somerset, and has since spread to the south-west of Scotland.^[7] In August 2010 the disease was found in Japanese larch trees in counties Waterford and Tipperary in Ireland^[8] and in 2013 in the Afan Forest Park in south Wales.^[9]

Uses

This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2016)

Larch is a wood valued for its tough, waterproof, and durable qualities. Top quality knot-free timber is in great demand for building yachts and other small boats, for exterior cladding of buildings, and interior panelling. The timber is resistant to rot when in contact with the ground, and is suitable for use as posts and in fencing. The hybrid Dunkeld larch is widely grown as a timber crop in northern Europe, valued for its fast growth and disease resistance. (EN 350-2 lists larch as slightly to moderately durable; this would make it unsuitable for ground contact use without preservative in temperate climates, and would give it a limited life as external cladding without coatings).
Larch has also been used in herbal medicine; see Bach flower remedies and Arabinogalactan for details.
In central Europe larch is viewed as one of the best wood materials for the building of residences.^{[citation needed]} Planted on borders with birch, both tree species^{[clarification needed]} were used in pagan cremations.^{[citation needed]}
Larches are often used in bonsai culture, where their knobby bark, small needles, fresh spring foliage, and – especially – autumn colour are appreciated. European larch, Japanese larch, and Tamarack larch are the species most commonly trained as bonsai.
Often, in Eurasian shamanism, the "world tree" is depicted as specifically a larch tree. ^[10]

References

Notes

Rushforth 1986

Stutley, Margaret. Shamanism : An Introduction. London: Routledge, 2003. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 3 Nov. 2015.

Bibliography

Gernandt, D. S. & Liston, A. (1999). "Internal transcribed spacer region evolution in Larix and Pseudotsuga (Pinaceae)" (PDF). American Journal of Botany (Botanical Society of America) 86 (5): 711–723. doi:10.2307/2656581. JSTOR 2656581.
Gros-Louis, M.-C., Bousquet, J., Pâques, L. E., & Isabel, N. (2005). Species-diagnostic markers in Larix spp. based on RAPDs and nuclear, cpDNA, and mtDNA gene sequences, and their phylogenetic implications. Tree Genetics & Genomes 1 (2): 50–63. Abstract.
Rushforth, Keith (1986) [1980]. Bäume [Pocket Guide to Trees] (in German) (2nd ed.). Bern: Hallwag AG. ISBN 3-444-70130-6.
Semerikov, V. L., & Lascoux, M. (1999). Genetic relationship among Eurasian and American Larix species based on allozymes. Heredity 83: 62–70.
Wei, X.-X., & Wang, X.-Q. (2003). "Phylogenetic split of Larix: evidence from paternally inherited cpDNA trnT-trnF region". Plant Systematics and Evolution 239: 67–77. doi:10.1007/s00606-002-0264-3.
Wei, X.-X., & Wang, X.-Q. (2004). "Recolonization and radiation in Larix (Pinaceae): evidence from nuclear ribosomal DNA paralogues". Molecular Ecology 13 (10): 3115–3123. doi:10.1111/j.1365-294X.2004.02299.x. PMID 15367124.