Why the larches go gold

Every autumn someone walking past asks whether the trees at the bottom of the garden are dying. They are larches, and they are doing exactly what larches do.

Unlike most conifers, a larch is deciduous. In autumn it pulls what it can back out of the needles, the needles turn a soft gold, and then they fall. By December the branches are bare and the ground underneath is a rust-coloured carpet.

Why bother?

Dropping needles means the tree does not have to keep them alive through the coldest months. In places with long, hard winters that is a sensible trade: grow fast in summer, shut down completely in winter.

The gold lasts about two weeks here. This year it peaked in the third week of October, a few days later than last year.