Interesting facts about decorative fruit

Cones, the fruit of conifers

The larch is a conifer that belongs to the pine family. Fruits, as we know them from various fruit trees, are not to be expected from this type of tree. Instead, it adorns itself with hard, woody cones. Although these are no enrichment for our dishes, they are wonderful decorations and handicraft materials.

Manhood is a long time coming

Mannability is a botany term for the ability of trees to produce fruit. The beginning of manhood is species-specific and is also influenced by ecological factors. The manhood of a larch begins :.

• outdoors: aged 15-20 years
• in stock: at the age of 30-40 years

When a young larch is planted in your own garden, a lot of patience is therefore required before the first cones can be admired.

Only fattening years provide a lot of fruit

The larch does not hang cones on its branches every year. The reason is that fruit production is an exhausting affair that the tree can only do at intervals of many years. During this time, however, its growth stagnates.

The years when a tree produces abundant fruit are called fattening years, but are also known as seeding years. In the case of larch, there is a time lag of 3 to 6 years between two mast years, depending on the altitude.

This is what larch cones look like

The larch blooms in spring, sometime between March and May. But the seeds do not mature and fly out until the following year. The cones, however, still stick to the tree. They fade over time and fall off the tree after about 10 years. They have the following characteristics:

• when ripe they stand upright
• are light brown and egg-shaped
• Length is 2.5 to 4 cm
• Width is 1.5 to 2 cm
• Seed scales are round and lie loosely
• they have fine stripes and brown hair