Castle Howard Arboretum Trust - Furniture Makers Trees

Botanical name: Larix decidua

Family: Pinaceae

Common Name: Common Larch

Habitat and Distribution:

Native of European mountains, it occurs mainly on moist soils in temperate regions, it prefers well-drained, slightly acidic to neutral soil, but can tolerate poorly-drained soils. It is tolerant of air pollution and wind.

Cultivated in plantations and shelterbelts or as an ornamental in Europe and N. America.

Introduced to Britain in the 17^th century.

Description:

The only deciduous European conifer, it can attain a height in excess of 40 metres (130 ft) but more typically is in the range of 25-30 metres tall and 6-10 metres wide.

The shape is pyramidal in habit with horizontal branches and weeping branchlets, it becomes more irregular with age.

The soft, flat needles are 2.5-3 cms (1-1.25 in) long are found in groups on spurs or in a spiral arrangement down long branches; they are bright green in spring, darkening with maturity. In autumn the needles turn a showy yellow/gold before dropping.

Moderately attractive male and female flowers cover trees in early spring, the female flowers are egg-shaped and about 0.5-2 cm long, in reds, pinks, yellows, or green whereas the male flowers are smaller and yellow.

The young purple cones are somewhat showy; they are ovoid, 2.5-4 cm (1-1.5 in) long, the scales are overlapped, but not reflexed and are pubescent on backside. The cones dry to brown and are persistent.

The young stems are yellowish and furrowed, whereas the outer bark is greyish brown with loose elongated plates which reveal a reddish inner bark.

Location within the arboretum:

A pair of specimens is located on the Furniture Makers walk, just over half way down. Many mature larch are spread throughout the arboretum, to the east of the lake, on Bracken Hill where they provide shelter for some of the more tender specimens.

Furniture Makers Trees at The Arboretum - Kew at Castle Howard

Timber:

The timber has distinctive growth rings formed by the early and latewood configurations, the later heartwood is a dark reddish to brick brown colour with contrasting lighter earlywood.

Uses:

It is used as a decorative veneer and is one of the woods used for making the fronts of violins.

Top quality, clear and straight timber is sought after as a ‘boat skin’ material.

Most of the wood is used for general agricultural purposes, fencing, telegraph poles and constructional uses.

It is also the source of an aromatic resin known as Venetian turpentine that has been used in medicine as an embrocation for the relief of rheumatic and neuralgic discomforts and for catarrhal diseases of the respiratory tract. The turpentine is also used by artists as an additive to oil paint, as it lends an exquisite jewel-like quality to oil paints with a tough enamel-like surface.