10/30/08 TREES OF GOLD

Thursday, 7:30 AM. 36 degrees, wind SW, calm. The channel is mostly calm but will probably become choppy as the wind picks up. The sky is mostly clear, the sun not yet up. The barometer predicts precipitation. It looks like it will be a true Indian Summer day.
One of the great transformations of the Northland is now occurring. The tamaracks, Larix laricina, have changed from green to gold. As you probably know, the tamarack, or larch, is a deciduous conifer…it loses its needles in the winter, so it is not, in a real sense, an “evergreen.” I’m not sure what the evolutionary advantage might be to losing its needle-leaves, when almost all other conifers keep them all winter to good advantage, as they can photosynthesize all winter long at least on warmer days, We could create or find some theory to explain it, but I prefer just to enjoy the anomaly and the beauty of the golden trees.
Another Larix species is the European larch, Larix decidua, quite similar but with larger cones and a more open shape, and also very hardy. Our neighbor has a nice specimen. The Japanese larch, Larix leptolepis, is also a beautiful tree. All things considered I prefer our native species. All of these trees need plenty of room to grow.
Another deciduous conifer is the unrelated, southern bald cypress, Taxodium distichum, probably not quite hardy this far north, but a very beautiful and useful tree. A conifer which goes the opposite direction entirely is the living fossil, Ginko biloba, which has leaves rather than needles. More on these trees at some future time.
I have a dental appointment in Ashland which is sure to spoil my day.