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Fall Rhapsody is over and the leaf-peepers have left Gatineau Park. But, I don’t know why because the larches are lighting it up! Seriously, they are glorious flames.
Eastern Larches (a.k.a. Tamarack, Hackmatack, Juniper, mélèze, Larix laricina), are the only conifers in our area that lose their needles annually. And in November, the soft little sprays of needles have changed colour and the trees are standing like bright golden-bronze shimmery spires.
They are too beautiful to ignore – we have to look for and celebrate these beauties for our own well-being, and I think for the health of the planet in general. We need to develop, maintain, deepen, and in some cases mend the way we connect, relate, view and interact with nature. So, one afternoon I brought my daughter and her friend on a mission to just spend time with and enjoy the sight of the larches… and we did!
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The girls reminded me that we had noticed and photographed a different patch of larches in the springtime. In the spring, it is a completely different palette of colours with soft green sprays of needles and bright pinkish-red female cones. Up close, they look like something tropical. The previous year’s cones can remain on the branch like little brown rosettes (on the left of the photo). On the picture below, you can also see a couple yellowish pollen-producing male cones pointing downward.
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Soon the needles will fall. Until then I am going to let their golden beauty bring me smiles and hope, Kate