Silly Me

Yes, I am silly. On our weekend trip, I kept noticing that tamarack trees provided almost the only tree colour that yet remains. I saw a lot and finally, just as I was contemplating posting a short note and picture, I came across two beautiful specimens wonderfully lit by the relatively low sun. There they were, right in front of me, on a bend in the road. It was a rural road, a very rural road with no traffic to speak of, so I could have stopped. Easily. But I dithered and had driven by before I could think properly. So, I kept on going.


That was really silly especially since it was on my mind and I was presented with a fantastic shot. But I didn't, so here are some pictures that I found on Flickr and are listed as public. So, I use them, but I would prefer to post my own. Oh well.


Perhaps you don't know about tamarack. I didn't up until a few years ago. Here's a brief description from the web site of the Yukon Territories.

The tamarack belongs the larch family. These trees are the only conifers that lose their needles in winter. The needles turn yellow in late autumn and are shed, then grown again in spring. These soft, flexible needles are arranged on the branches in clusters of 10 to 20.

The cones grow upright on the branches and stay on the trees over winter and through the following summer. Male and female cones occur on the same tree.

Tamaracks are found throughout most of the forested areas in the Northwest Territories. It is a tree of cold, wet places, occurring in sphagnum bogs and swamps. It grows with black spruce in open muskeg, and aspen and birch on better drained soils.