American tamarack

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More names for this tree

Anishinaabemowin: Mashkiigwaatig

The Dakota and Anishinaabe were among the earliest people to name Minnesota’s plants and animals, as well as to understand them in relation to Minnesota’s climate and seasons. Those original names are still in use, and several are included on the Season Watch website. However, complete translations were not available.

Latin (or scientific name): Larix laricina

The scientific community has a convention of assigning agreed-upon Latin names to every kind of organism. Using scientific names helps people communicate confidently about the same organism and organize lifeforms based on how closely related they are.

More common names: Larch, hackmatack

Page contents

About the American tamarack

Visual guide to phenology

Graphs and historical data

More resources

A path passes through a grove of tamaracks with golden orange leaves.
A grove of American tamaracks with colored leaves
October 30, 2022, Hennepin County, Minnesota
Photo © makou012, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)
iNaturalist observation

About the American tamarack

  • The American tamarack is a coniferous tree with a straight upright trunk that can reach heights of forty to seventy feet.
  • Tamarack trees are commonly found in swampy forested areas of northern Minnesota, or in southerly cold swamp areas in hardwood forests.
  • Its fruit are small cones that start out greenish or red and then become light brown when mature.
  • The mature cones open up and release small winged seeds in the fall.
  • Its needles turn deep yellow and are shed during late fall or early winter.
  • The tamarack tree is the only Minnesota conifer that loses all its needles annually.
  • Fun fact: The common name ‘tamarack’ comes from the Algonquin language meaning "wood used for snowshoes".

Visual guide to phenology

Watch for the appearance of needles and cones. Take notice of when needle buds break, needles change color, and cones develop.

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Note to observers

This page explains general clues to watch for when observing American tamarack phenology. However, this page does not explain how to identify this plant or collect data in a standardized way.

Three small brown cones are supported by a thin twig. Along its length, the twig has pairs of small knobs that occur at roughly regular spacing.
This tamarack twig has some colorful features. The small bright green spots are needles unfolding from breaking buds. The circular, pale yellow spots are open flowers.
Close-up image of a tamarack twig. Short, cylindrical, ridged offshoots support bundles of brilliant green needles that are still very short.
Twig of a tamarack tree with a brilliant magenta female flower. It has triangular scales and is upright at the end of the twig.
A twig with about twenty clusters of brilliant green needles and about three fucia cones.
Five ripening seed cones are shades of brown and pale green. Bundles of short, bright green needles fill the scene.
A close-up image showing two seed cones which are brown with scales that have begun to spread apart. Most of the needles are green, but a few have turned yellow.
A wetland scene with several brilliant golden-orange tamarack trees.
A winter scene with evergreens on either side of a bare-branched tamarack tree.

Graphs and historical data

Note: The Orientation Center provides a map, as well as information on reading graphs; interpreting summary statistics, who collected the data and how; and how to download datasets for independent exploration.


Itasca County

Leaf budbreak

  • Earliest: March 28 (occurred in 2012)
  • Average: April 23
  • Latest: May 12 (occurred in 2008)
Scatterplot showing American tamarack phenology observations in Itasca County, Minnesota

Download this dataset (.csv file)

All leaves colored

  • Earliest: September 23 (occurred in 2014)
  • Average: October 10
  • Latest: October 26 (occurred in 1997)
Scatterplot showing American tamarack phenology observations in Itasca County, Minnesota

Download this dataset (.csv file)

 

First leaf fall

  • Earliest: October 12 (occurred in 2001 and 2010)
  • Average: October 18
  • Latest: October 26 (occurred in 2013)
Scatterplot showing American tamarack phenology observations in Itasca County, Minnesota

Download this dataset (.csv file)

More resources

American tamarack (Larix laricina) in the Minnesota Biodiversity Atlas

American tamarack (Larix laricina) in Nature's Notebook

Cold winter temperature can accelerate the timing of spring budbreak, synopsis of a journal publication by Claudia Nanninga, Chris R Buyarski, Andrew M Pretorius, Rebecca A Montgomery (2017) in Tree Physiology 37: 1727–1738.

 

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Keep exploring Season Watch

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Times of year

Co-author: Jayme Hogan, Minnesota Master Naturalist