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Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles
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'Larix × eurolepis' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
A hybrid between L.. decidua, the common larch, and L. kaempferi, the Japanese one, first raised about 1900 at Dunkeld in Perthshire, where considerable plantations of it are growing. The year-old shoots resemble those of common larch in their yellowish colour but show the influence of L. kaempferi in being sometimes slightly downy; also the bracts of the young cones are reflexed, this character being one of the best distinctive features of the Japanese species. The adult cones take after common larch in being conical, in having yellowish stalks, and in the bracts being occasionally exposed. I have seen plantations at Dunkeld and Blair-Atholl which are notable for their vigour and cleanliness. Hybrid seedlings have repeatedly been obtained from ten trees of L. kaempferi at Dunkeld that were raised from Japanese seed sown in 1884. They are evidently fertilised by pollen wafted on to them when in flower from numerous common larches growing near.
For the first half-century after it first arose at Dunkeld, L. × eurolepis was little planted outside Scotland, owing to the scarcity of seed. This is now being raised in quantity in special plots, where selected strains of the two parent species are grown intermingled. Vigour is at its maximum in trees from this ‘first-cross’ seed, and falls off in later generations (H. L. Edlin, Qtly. Journ. For., Vol. 57, p. 112).
The following examples of the Dunkeld larch have been recorded recently: National Pinetum, Bedgebury, Kent, pl. 1925, 70 × 5 ft (1968); Warnham Court, Sussex, 73 × 53⁄4 ft (1971); Colesborne, Glos., 92 × 61⁄4 ft (1971); Killerton, Devon, 79 × 6 ft (1970); Blair Atholl, Perths., pl. 1905 (original), 84 × 83⁄4 ft (1970); Dunkeld, Perths., 97 × 71⁄4 ft (1970); Murthly Castle, Perths., 98 × 61⁄2 ft (1970); Crarae, Argyll, pl. 1918, 74 × 6 ft (1969). The rapid growth when young is shown by a tree growing in the garden of Alan Mitchell, who has provided virtually all the tree-measurements given in this revised edition. Planted in 1963, it measured 27 × 11⁄2 ft in 1969.
It has been argued that the correct name for this hybrid is L. × marschlinsii Coaz (1917). See Int. Dendr. Soc. Year Book 1982, pp. 67–8, and also Irish Forestry, Vol. 37, pp. 112–18 (1980).
specimens: National Pinetum, Bedgebury, Kent, pl. 1925, 77 × 53⁄4 ft (1979) and 80 × 5 ft (1982); Warnham Court, Sussex, 73 × 53⁄4 ft (1971); Ashburnham Park, Sussex, 88 × 71⁄4 ft (1983); Colesborne, Glos., 95 × 71⁄2 ft (1985); Stourhead, Wilts., 98 × 81⁄2 ft (1980); Killerton, Devon, 79 × 6 ft (1970); Bodnant, Gwyn., 98 × 81⁄2 ft (1981); Yair House, Selkirk, 85 × 73⁄4 ft (1984); Munches, Kirkcud., 92 × 101⁄4 ft (1985); Edinburgh Botanic Garden, 66 × 81⁄4 ft (1985); Dawyck, Peebl., pl. 1910, 85 × 81⁄2 ft and 82 × 83⁄4 ft (1982); Crarae, Argyll, pl. 1918, 82 × 61⁄2 ft (1976); Strone House, Argyll, 124 × 8 ft and 132 × 81⁄4 ft (1985); Blair Atholl, Perths., 80 × 91⁄4 ft and 88 × 7 ft (1983); Keir House, Perths., 108 × 71⁄2 ft (1985); Dunkeld, Perth, in Bishop’s Walk, 98 × 8 ft (1981) and another 108 × 71⁄2 ft (1983); Murthly Castle, Perths., 98 × 61⁄2 ft (1970); Glamis Castle, Angus, 88 × 81⁄4 ft and 100 × 61⁄2 ft (1981).
The tree planted by Alan Mitchell in 1963, mentioned on page 521, measures 56 × 23⁄4 ft (1982).