Western larch

The western larch (Larix occidentalis) is a species of larch native to the mountains of western North America (Pacific Northwest, Inland Northwest); in Canada in southeastern British Columbia and southwestern Alberta, and in the United States in eastern Washington, eastern Oregon, northern Idaho, and western Montana. It is the most productive of the three species of larch native to North America. The tree is a large deciduous conifer reaching tall, with a trunk up to diameter; the bark ranges from orangish to purplish brown. The crown is narrow conic; the main branches are level to upswept, with the side branches often drooping. The shoots are dimorphic, with growth divided into long shoots (typically long) and bearing several buds, and short shoots only long with only a single bud. The leaves are needle-like, light green, long, soft and very slender; they turn bright yellow in the fall, leaving the pale orange-brown shoots bare until the next spring. The seed cones are ovoid-cylindric, long, with 40 to 80 seed scales; each scale bearing an exserted bract. The cones are green to reddish purple when immature, turning brown and the scales opening flat or reflexed to release the seeds when mature, four to six months after pollination. The old cones commonly remain on the tree for many years, turning dull gray-black. Individual specimens can live centuries, even up to a millennium. The largest known specimen is about 1,000 years old, tall and over in diameter with a crown, located at Seeley Lake, Montana. Western larch grows almost exclusively in the drainage of the Columbia River, from the east of the Cascade Range to the west of the Continental Divide. It covers the regions from around Kamloops, British Columbia, to Weiser, Idaho, and Central Oregon. It appears on ranges including the Blue Mountains and others in southeast BC and northwest Montana, usually on moist slopes up to above sea level. It can grow from elevations between and is very cold tolerant, able to survive winter temperatures down to about .