“The leaves are gone from the hillsides and the glory of the red maple and of the yellow aspen and birch is strewn upon the ground. Only in the protected swamps is there any color, the smoky gold of the tamaracks…these are days of quietly falling needles when after each breath of wind the air is smoky with their drift.”
– The Singing Wilderness by Sigurd Olson
We’re in the brief and brilliant days of the tamarack’s smoky gold. Tamarack, also known as larch, is the only northern conifer that sheds all of its leaves in the fall. Tamaracks are adapted to cold climates and waterlogged soils, and thus have taken a leaf strategy in between the deciduous and coniferous trees in our region.
Like other deciduous trees, tamarack’s leaves are efficient, lightweight, and relatively cheap (they don’t need a waxy coating to protect them in winter and thus require less carbon and nutrients than evergreen needles). Tamaracks also can reabsorb a high proportion of nitrogen from their leaves before they are shed.
Like other coniferous trees, tamarack’s leaves are needle-shaped. The small clusters of needles are sparsely positioned along the branch, ensuring most leaves are amply exposed to sunlight and able to photosynthesize. A needle shape also has less surface area compared to the broad leaves of other deciduous trees, making conifer leaves more wind resistant.
After the smoky gold has left the trees and drifted quietly to the ground, we’ll still have piles of (slightly drabber) smoky gold needles surrounding the tamaracks, a last remembrance of the brilliant fall colors before the snow arrives.
