Larix decidua

As a garden tree the Larch has much to recommend it! In habit it is singularly beautiful, a large pyramidal tree to 60-100' with lovely graceful horizontal branches. No tree surpasses it in the exquisite and soft tender young green foliage and the surprise of the golden-yellow autumn color before the needles drop to show the gorgeous scaly reddish-bark; native to the Alps, it is an important timber tree in Europe. S/M

The Larix is one of the few conifers that is not evergreen; the needles first turn an enchanting golden yellow then drop in the fall exposing the twiggy, heavily branched structure. It forms a tall, graceful tree with a conical, though sometimes artistically irregular top. The bark is warm gray, with vertical cracks. Larches are glorious in groups, reminiscent of visits to the mountains in the fall where great groves wend their way through a steep canyon.