Common names
European larch
Field ID
Needles attached singly and in clusters, the former only on young shoots. Buds in the axils of these needles then go on to produce short spur shoots with clusters of 30-40 needles. Needles are around 3-4cm long, soft, and flattened in cross-section. Young shoots usually the colour of fresh straw or blonde hair, showing well on young trees and especially noticeable when planted en masse. Deciduous, needles turning yellow in autumn before falling. Female cones produced in spring before new needles emerge and are an eye-catching bright cerise pink. Upright egg-shaped mature cones 3.5 to 4.5cm long with appressed scales, never with reflexed tips.
The three larches likely to be encountered in the British Isles are not easy to separate. Features such as cone shape and the colour of young shoots will fairly readily separate European and Japanese larch, but the hybrid can display a range of characters between the two.
General information
European larch was introduced to the British Isles sometime before 1629. It's native range extends across the Alps of central Europe with smaller populations in the Tatra, Carpathian and Sudeten Mountains and in Poland. It is very widely planted and has been much used as a timber producing species in plantation forestry though in the British Isles today hybrid larch (L. x marschlinsii) and Japanese larch (L. kaempferi) are more common.