Tamarack

Leaves

Form

• Flattened above, keeled below, or triangular or 4-sided
• 15–60 per tuft

Length

• 2–5 cm

Colour

• Bluish-green

Buds

Form

• Terminal bud smooth
• On dwarf shoots, surrounded by a circle of hairs

Colour

• Dark red or brown

Twigs

Form

• Hairless

Colour

• Orange-brown to pinkish

Seed cones (immature)

Form

• Occasionally a leafy shoot develops at the tip

Length

• 5–10 mm

Colour

• Conelets red, pink, or yellowish-green

Seed cones (mature)

Form

• Broadly ovoid
• On stout, short, curved stalks

Length

• 1–2 cm

Structure

• Scales up to 20, smooth
• Bracts much shorter than the scales, visible only at the base of the cone

Timing

• Cones begin to open in mid-August
• Seeds shed during the following months

Seeds

Length

• Seed 3 mm
• Seed wing 6 mm

Bark

Form

• Thin, smooth when young, becoming scaly

Colour

• Grey when young, becoming reddish-brown
• Newly exposed bark reddish-purple

Size

Height

• To 25 m
• Trees often stunted with short needles and narrow cone scales in nutrient-poor bogs, and near the tree line in the far north and on mountain slopes

Diameter

• To 40 cm

Maximum age

• 150 years

Tree form

Forest-grown

Trunk

• Slender, straight or sinuous

Crown

• Narrowly conical, open, becoming irregular with age
• Principal branches horizontal or sometimes ascending

Root system

• Shallow, wide-spreading

Habitat

Site

• Cold, wet, poorly drained sites such as sphagnum bogs and muskeg
• Best growth on moist, well-drained light soils

Associated species

• Mixed with black spruce and/or eastern white-cedar on poorly drained sites
• Mixed with black spruce, white spruce, trembling aspen, and white birch on well-drained sites
• May occur in pure stands in a narrow band around bogs

Range

Across Canada