Tamarack
Larix laricina
Bird food

(c) Douglas Goldman, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), uploaded by Douglas Goldman
Growing it
| When | Flowers in May |
|---|---|
| Type | tree |
| Sun | Full sun, partial shade |
| Water | Medium, high |
| Soil | pH 4.5–7 |
| Hardiness | zone 1–6 |
| Mature height | 20 m |
| Mature spread | 6 m |
| Spacing | 4 m |
| Years to maturity | 20 |
| Bloom | May |
| In bloom | May |
| Native to | AB, SK |
needles about 2.5 cm long in bundles; a single straight leader
Where it has been recorded
Which ecoregions the records fall in
- Mid-Boreal Uplands central AB / SK: 170 records, high confidence
- Western Alberta Upland central AB: 114 records, high confidence
- Aspen Parkland central AB / SK: 106 records, high confidence
- Boreal Transition central AB / SK: 95 records, high confidence
- Wabasca Lowland north AB: 31 records, high confidence
- Peace Lowland north AB: 19 records, medium confidence
- Slave River Lowland north AB: 8 records, medium confidence
- Churchill River Upland north SK: 6 records, low confidence
- Eastern Continental Ranges central AB: 5 records, low confidence
- Hay River Lowland north AB: 4 records, low confidence
- Northern Alberta Uplands north AB: 3 records, low confidence
These are counts of records collected somewhere in the region, which is the resolution of the evidence: the map above shows where inside it. A region with 3 records is not the same claim as one with three hundred, so the count travels with the region. A region missing from this list means nobody has recorded it there, which is not the same as the plant being absent. Records within 900 m of a border count for neither side, because the border is not drawn finely enough to say which one they are on. Source: GBIF occurrence search + PRESERVED_SPECIMEN pass, retrieved 2026-08-24. Boundaries digitised from the National Ecological Framework for Canada v2.2 (Ecological Stratification Working Group 1995), simplified to about 900 m for display: an outline is accurate to roughly a kilometre, not to the metre. How these counts are made.
See every observation, live and current, on GBIF or iNaturalist.
Documented animals
1 documented relationships.
seed for
- White-winged Crossbill Poelen et al. 2014
Also worth knowing
Safety
Toxicity not assessed, absence of a warning is not a guarantee of safety
Edible parts
Needles (tea)
Buying it
About $60–$150 per plant (estimate), usually from a native-plant nursery. Estimate (large specimen tree); AB retail as of 2026