The TreeTamarack or Eastern Larch is one of the four softwoods species (Larches and Baldcypress) that shed their needles each fall. It is a straight slender tree 40 to 70 feet tall and 12 to 20 inches in diameter. It generally grows in swampy locations. The limbs begin almost at ground level, are almost horizontal, thin and curve upward slightly. The needles are feathery in appearance, a bright green in color, only about an inch long and grow in clusters along the small branches. These needles turn a yellowish or rust color in the autumn and fall off. The name “Ka-neh-tens,” meaning “the leaves fall” was given this tree by the Iroquois Indians. The small cones are a bright chestnut brown and form in clusters close to the small branchlets. At first the cone scales are opened slightly in the spring; after pollination they close into a compact ball until the seed ripens. The bark of the mature trees is a dark reddish brown, with shallow furrows and thin scales. The tree is especially susceptible to attack by the larch saw-fly.Eastern Larch Pine ConescdEastern Larch Tree BarkCommon Names in UseTamarack (Me., N.H., Vt., Mass., R.I., N.J., N,Y,. Pa,. Ind,. Ill., Wis., Mich., Minn., Ohio, Ontario)American Larch (Vt., Wis., nurserymen)Black Larch (Minn.)Epinette Rouge (Quebec)Hacmack (lit)Hackmatack (Me., N.H., Mass,. R.I., Del., Ill., Minn., Ontario )Juniper (Me., New Brunswick to Hudson Bay)Ka-neh-tens-- "The leaves fall" (Indians, N.Y.)Larch (Vt., Mass., R.I., Conn., N.Y., N.J., Pa., Del., Wis., Minn., Ohio, Ontario)Red Larch (Misch.)Growth RangeThe Tamarack ranges from Newfoundland and Labrador, west to Mackenzie and Alaska, south to Pennsylvania, Maryland, Illinois, Minnesota, and Alberta. It is strictly an eastern and northern species and should not be confused with Western Larch, sometimes called Western Tamarack.Eastern Larch Range MapThe WoodThe wood is coarse in texture, the heartwood being a yellowish to russet brown but without a pronounced reddish tinge. The sapwood is narrow and a creamy white color. It resembles hard pine and is moderately heavy, stiff, brittle, hard and strong, slivery, generally straight-grained but occasionally spiral-grained. Close fibers make Tamarack wood difficult to penetrate with preservatives. It works well with tools and has an oily or greasy feel in handling.UsesTamarack lumber is used for rough, general construction, railroad ties and ship timbers. Having a straight stem, Tamarack is used extensively for telegraph and telephone poles. It is now used also for paper pulp. The large roots and the lower portion of the stump are sometimes used to hew "ship knees” used in keels of wooden ships.BibliographyShelley E. Schoonover (American Woods) 1951 (Watling & Co. ) Santa Monica, CA File AttributionsThe TreeDziuk, P. M. (2012). Mature Tamarack trees in fall color [Photograph]. Minnesota Wildflowers. https://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/tree/tamarackEastern Larch Tree BarkDziuk, P. M. (2014). Tamarack tree bark [Photograph]. Minnesota Wildflowers. https://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/tree/tamarackEastern Larch Pine ConesDziuk, P. M. (2005). Tamarack tree cones [Photograph]. Minnesota Wildflowers. https://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/tree/tamarackEastern Larch Range MapBy Elbert L. Little, Jr., of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service - USGS Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center: Digital Representations of Tree Species Range Maps from: Elbert L. Little, Jr. (1971), Atlas of United States trees, Vol. 1, conifers and important hardwoods: U.S. Department of Agriculture Miscellaneous Publication 1146, 9 p., 200 maps., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=30488913

ago today i got married to Linda, who passed away almost 4 years ago (August), if not for her, i'd never have pursued woodworking with the intensity i have. it was she who wanted/needed to have me build a new kitchen in our old home....well, i'm going to need some tools to do that. still have the tools, and have added more over time, and still enjoy spending time in my shop building things of beauty and utility, I just don't have her around to make things for. so i find others to make things for now (like the dining table and matching benches i recently completed).you need someone to love, something to do, and something to look forward to. if it's just about money, that's a lousy reason for making sawdust, there has to be a little love put into each project.i know, not really woodworking project related, but some reason behind the scenes.....

Publication date 1953 Usage Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International This is from the site WKFineTools.com.

The TreeThe Slash Pine grows rapidly and is one of the most important and profitable of our southern yellow pines The name "slash" is given the tree because it grows most favorably in low hummocks of swamps called "slashes." It resembles the Ponderosa Pine in many respects although it is not as large a tree. The tree grows 80 to 150 feet in height with a fine high clear trunk 24 to 36 inches in diameter, breast high. The bark is relatively thin, broken into irregular scales, and a reddish-brown to orange color. The needles are 8 to 12 inches long, a dark lustrous green color, with two or three in a bundle forming clusters at the ends of the twigs. The needles of Slash Pine are longer than the Loblolly Pine but shorter than the Longleaf Pine. They remain on the tree for two seasons. The cones are egg shaped three to six inches long and are a glossy leathery brown color, very compact with short spines at the end of each scale of the cone, a peculiar characteristic of the Slash Pine. It is one of the best looking pines and is used to a large extent for ornamental planting and roadside beautification. Because this tree thrives best in moist areas it suffers lightly from forest fires but is susceptible to damage from red heart rot.Slash Pine ConesSlash Pine BarkCommon Names in UseSlash Pine (Ala., Miss.,Ga., Fla.)Bastard Pine (Fla., Miss., Ala., in part)Cuban PineMeadow Pine (Fla., eastern Miss. in part)Pitch Pine (Fla.)Saltwater Pine (Fla.)She Pitch Pine (Ga)She Pine (Ga., Fla.)Spruce Pine (southern Ala.)Southern Pine (trade)Swamp Pine (Fla., Miss., Ala. in part)Yellow Slash PineGrowth RangeThe growth range of Slash Pine extends from the southern part of South Carolina westward through southern Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and southeastern Louisiana, and southward through Florida, and is also found in the West Indies and Central America. This tree grows best on low, poorly drained flats near bays and swamps.The WoodThe heartwood is a rich orange to light brown or tan color with moderately thick light yellowish tinged sapwood. It is very heavy, the heaviest of all the pines, very stiff, strong, hard, straight-grained, uniform in texture and very resinous. It has no prominent figure. It nails hard, glues well and shrinks moderately.Pinus Caribaea (Morelet) by Romeyn B. Hough - Plate 125.UsesSlash Pine outranks all other southern pines in the production of naval stores, pine oils, etc. When treated with creosote it is used extensively for posts and poles. The wood is used for heavy general construction, ship building, sheathing and other common lumber uses where a high resin content is not objectionable. Considerable quantities of the wood especially of the younger trees are used for paper pulp.BibliographyShelley E. Schoonover (American Woods) 1951 (Watling & Co. ) Santa Monica, CA File AttributionsThe TreePinus elliottii at St. Joseph Peninsula State Park, Gulf County, Florida.Reference: File:Pinus elliottii(1).jpg. (2015, March 8). Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository. Retrieved 15:33, August 12, 2018 from https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Pinus_elliottii(1).jpg&oldid=152432305. Attribution: By Mason Brock (Masebrock) [Public domain], from Wikimedia CommonsSlash Pine conesReference: PNGTreesKey - Pinus Caribaea Morelet. http://www.pngplants.org/PNGtrees/TreeDescriptions/Pinus_caribaea_Morelet.html. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.Slash Pine BarkReference: Pinus_caribaea_0967.Jpg (JPEG Image, 2272 × 1704 Pixels) - Scaled (53%). http://www.pngplants.org/PNGtrees/images/Pinus_caribaea_0967.jpg. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.Slash Pine Range MapEstimated realized gains for first-generation slash pine (Pinus elliottii var. elliottii) tree improvement in the southeastern United States.Attribution: Scientific Figure on ResearchGate. Source: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Natural-range-of-slash-pine-Critchfield-and-Little-1966-and-location-of-the-38-slash_fig1_237866218 [accessed 6 Mar, 2019]Pinus Caribaea (Morelet)Pinus Caribaea (Morelet) by Romeyn B. Hough - Plate 125. North Carolina State University Libraries, https://www.lib.ncsu.edu/specialcollections/forestry/hough/vlgimage/plate_99.jpg Accessed 5 July. 2026.