Tree to 50 m in nature but much less in cultivation. Branchlets drooping. Bark greyish. Young shoots grey or yellowish, ridged, hairless. Winter buds brown with pointed scales. Leaves mostly 3-3.5 cm long, less than 1 mm wide, soft, fresh green turning yellow in autumn. Male cones yellow. Female cones ovoid, 2.5-3.5 cm long with the bracts not exceeding the scales. Seed with a broad wing.
Slow-growing and climatically suited only to cool districts.
Grows naturally in the European Alps & Carpathian Mts.
In Europe a widely planted timber tree.
Drooping branchlets, hairless shoots. Larix kaempferi (see key), Japanese Larch, is occasionally grown (e.g. 'Pirianda', Mt Dandenong and 'Forest Glades', Mt Macedon in Victoria); it is naturalised from plantations on the South Island of New Zealand.
NSW: Leura ('Everglades' ptd 1912); Mt Wilson ('Yengo'); Orange (Kinross Wolaroi School). ACT: Yarralumla (Nsy). VIC: Bogong (Clover Arboretum near Clover Dam); Dandenongs ('Pirianda', Mt Dandenong Arboretum); Mt Macedon ('Alton', 'Hascombe', 'Forest Glades' and other properties); Narbethong ('St Fillans'). TAS: Lalla (W.A.G. Walker Arboretum, grove of trees); Westbury (common), VIC: Emerald Lake (In plantation of conifers above car park c.14m tall).
Source: (1995). Pinaceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 1, Ferns, conifers & their allies. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.
Branches and branchlets contorted. Grows to nearly 2 m in 10 years. Seedling found in the Yarra Valley, Victoria, and raised by G. Bogle, Australia; introduced c. 1980.
Larix decidua 'Pendula Julian'
S Weeper' Low, pendulous. Raised Yamina Rare Plants Nursery, Monbulk Victoria, Australia in 1980s.
Weeping European Larch Long pendulous branchlets. An old cultivar originating from the UK.
