Larch Rose

I have waited a long time to see one of these beauties, seemingly never previously being in the right place at the right time!  They are the female flowers of the Larch, the only deciduous conifer. The male flowers are creamy brown and hang downwards. Cross pollination happens with aid from the wind and then small brown cones are produced.

The seeds from the cones are eaten by red squirrels and by several birds, including siskins and lesser redpolls. The buds and immature cones are eaten by black grouse and the caterpillars of many moths feed on the needles or cone scales.

The Larch was first introduced in the UK over 400 years ago, when it was grown for timber. It can grow to 30m tall and live up to 250 years. It’s green needles grow in clumps along the stems and turn a rusty orange in the Autumn so the hillsides look to be ablaze, before the needles are dropped.

The wearing and burning of larch was once thought to protect against evil spirits & enchantments.

Larch trees are abundant on the eastern side of Win Hill, where Myles lead a group today for his hillwalking assessment. He did very well to keep up group morale in the rain, identifying a good many bird calls and sharing several other tidbits of interesting information. It was a however pretty damp so we didn’t hang around.