Tamarack

One of the interesting trees on the slopes around the Aerie is the Tamarack. This is a deciduous conifer that turns a beautiful golden brown in the fall before the needles all fall off. Here are a few small ones growing alongside the driveway.


One of the Jersey guys who hunts from a camp up the hill called them “mutant pines.” And this from a guy who lives and works in the Pine Barrens of NJ where the pitch pines NEED fire to open their cones and send out needles from the trunk a week or two after the embers die.

(The wind was blowing pretty good when I took this and several other pictures trying to capture the golden glow of the tamarack needles. Doesn’t do it justice. Only a full tree would but I’m too lazy today to go for a hike.