#american larch

[dewitty1]

Aeneas Spring, Aeneas Valley WA ( picture taken by me August 2013. Sadly the spring is no longer running, I hear)

[dendroica]

Fall Tamarack (via USFWSmidwest)

This tamarack tree is in fall color and ready to drop needles any day now.

Photo by Courtney Celley/USFWS.

[captain-safetypants]

this past weekend I learned about the tamarack tree, also known as the American Larch (and other names as well), which is a conifer, but is also deciduous, a fact that blew my mind. I was driving along much farther north than I generally stray, and the countryside was *covered* in these bright golden yellow spruce-tree-lookin’ things. I had never seen a yellow conifer before; I didn’t know they could exist!

At first there were a lot of oaks (browny red) and maples (orange and fire red) mixed in among the pines (green), tamaracks and birches (also golden yellow, slightly more lemony), and it looked like the landscape was on fire but in a good way. As I continued north, the maples and oaks became scarcer, until the land was a sea of gold, with some green and brown for contrast. It was so beautiful. I wanted to be a 19th century landscape painter just to try to capture the feeling of traveling a land made of jewels.

[starsinmypocketpussy]