How do cones look like larch?

Larch is a coniferous tree, beautiful and very common in the forests of Eastern and Western Siberia, Sayans, Altai and the Far East. It forms vast magnificent light forests. In fairly favorable conditions, larch can grow to a height of more than 40 meters and reach a trunk diameter of up to 1 meter or more.

In this article, you can learn about what this wonderful tree represents, and also consider its features and how the cones are called in larch.

Larch: general information

The age of the tree can reach 400 years. Representatives and 800-year-olds were noted and registered.

Larch is a coniferous plant of the pine family. The most diverse representatives of this genus are prevalent in most of the northern hemisphere.

Larch is an unusual coniferous tree. This is a fast-growing plant. Its singularity is that for the winter all its needles fall off. Hvoinki soft and narrow-line. The cones are ovoid and round. In total, the genus of larch includes about 20 species.

Description

This plant is monoecious. The larch cords are loose (conical in young), the sun is translucent. With age they acquire an ovoid and a more rounded shape with a blunt apex. In places where there are constant winds, the crown is flag-shaped in shape or one-sided.

What are the cones called? In larch, they differ in masculine (round or ovate), yellowish in color, and female - green or red-pink, which look very beautiful. Pollination occurs with the dissolving of needles or after this: in the south it lasts from April to May, in the north - in June. Maturation of cones occurs in autumn in the year of flowering of larch. They have an oblong, slightly rounded shape, their length is up to 3.5 cm. The matured cones of larch either immediately open, or it happens after wintering, early spring. They have only 3-4 seeds.

Larch seeds are small, ovate, with wings tightly attached. Fruits in larch appear only at the age of about 15 years.

Types of larch

In Russia, as noted, about 20 species and hybrids of larch grow. The most famous are the Daurian and the Siberian. All species grow mainly in Northern Europe, on the American continent, both in wild and in a specially cultivated form.

Siberian - a tree that grows up to 45 meters tall. Light-loving species, resistant to wind, frost and drought. Siberian larch is undemanding to the humidity of the air and soil.

European - a tree of a weeping form, up to 30 m high. This species is very durable.
The crown of such a larch is mainly conical or irregular, with drooping branches. The bark of her has a brown color. The size of cones in larch is up to 4 cm. Light green needles have a length of 10-40 mm. The bark of her is thick, grayish-brown. The hvoins collected in bundles have a length of up to 13-45 mm. Their color is light gray-green. Ripen seeds in September.

Larch Daurskaya, or Gmelina, is a rather tall tree (45 meters). Very winter-hardy, drought-resistant and undemanding to the soil plant. The crone has a wide ovoid shape, and the young plant is pyramidal. Brown or reddish bark. Pine needles are light green and have a length of up to 3 cm. Larch cones have a size of up to 2.5 cm.

Weeping larch reaches a height of 25 m. Its shoots are hanging and bared. Bark of black-brown color. The cones of larch have a size of up to 2.5 cm in length.

American larch is a 25-meter tall tree, the crown of which is conical or narrow pyramidal. Perfectly tolerates excess humidity. The branches are slightly curved and dangling downwards. Light green needles have a length of 3 cm. Small, quite decorative cones of violet-red color, they mature as they mature.

Kayander is close in many ways to the larch Daurskaya. The tree is frost-resistant and can grow on poor soils. Its height is up to 30 meters. Lilac cones slightly flattened, globose.

Cones of pine, spruce and larch

There are several differences among cones of coniferous tree species, and the similarity in them is that they are all monoecious.

Spruce has a crown cone-shaped with branches lowered and completely covering the trunk of the tree. The fruits of her (bud) are also directed downward.

Pine has a sprawling crown with branches raised up. And its cones look upwards or are directed by the tops in the sides.

The external difference between the cones of these three trees is mainly in their color and size.
Lilac cones are described in more detail a little bit above. They are the most elegant of all three kinds of trees.

Pine cones are kept on short petioles, cylindrical (length up to 10 cm and thickness up to 4 cm). They ripen for the third year, they differ wooden hard scales.

Fir cones are formed by covering spirally arranged scales. They ripen in the first year. In their sinuses are on 2 ovules. Larch scales in density are in the middle between cones of spruce and pine.

Conclusion

Larch is a very useful plant and is widely used in folk medicine. It should be noted that its pine needles contain essential oil, bark - organic acids, tannins, anthocyanins, catechins, flavonols, etc.
The most effective of all methods of reproduction is seed. Very beautiful and spectacularly looks larch during the period of maturing cones.