A tree 60 to 70, sometimes 100 ft high; young shoots brown and slightly downy. Leaves 1 in. long, pointed, somewhat four-sided through the prominence of the midrib above and below. Cones egg-shaped, about 11⁄2 in. long, 3⁄4 to 1 in. wide, rounded at the top; scales rounded, downy outside; bracts protruded. Bot. Mag., t. 9338.
Native of W. China; introduced for Messrs Veitch by Wilson from the neighbourhood of Kangting (Tatsien-lu) in 1904. The leaves have a strong aromatic and distinctive odour when crushed. Wilson described it as a symmetrical tree, with rather short, horizontal branches and pendulous branchlets of a shining orange-brown or purple-brown colour, becoming grey in the second or third year.
The Tibetan larch is closely allied to the Himalayan – L. griffithii – and the taxonomic and geographical boundaries between them are not as yet clear. A specimen considered to be the true species grows at Wakehurst Place, Sussex. Planted in 1913 it measures 50 × 21⁄2 ft (1971). A tree at Borde Hill, raised from seeds collected by Forrest in Yunnan, and planted as L. potanii, measures 48 × 21⁄4 ft (1957); this tree has still to be examined scientifically.