Trees deciduous; crown sparse, open. Bark silver-gray to gray-brown on young trees, becoming reddish brown to brown, smooth initially, scaly to thickened and furrowed with age. Branches whorled; short (spur) shoots prominent on twigs 2 years or more old, each bearing leaves (needles), and often pollen cone, or seed cone; lateral long shoots (sylleptic branches) sometimes produced by current-year growth increments; leaf scars many. Buds rounded. Leaves in tufts of 10--60 on short (spur) shoots or borne singly on 1st-year long shoots, deciduous, ± flattened, with abaxial keel, sessile, base decurrent, sheath absent, apex pointed or rounded; resin canals 2. Pollen cones solitary, ovoid-cylindric, yellowish. Seed cones maturing in 1 season, persisting several years, erect, globose to ovoid, usually terminal on short shoots and thus appearing stalked, sometimes sessile on 1-year-old long shoots; scales persistent, circular to oblong-obovate, thin, lacking apophysis and umbo; bracts included or exserted. Seeds winged; cotyledons 4--6. x =12. Species of Larix are present in most boreal regions; they often form only a minor component of the vegetation. Some are important for their hard, heavy, and decay-resistant wood. Only a few have received any horticultural attention; some cultivars exist for the most commonly cultivated Old World larches, L . decidua Miller and L . kaempferi (Lambert) Carrière, but almost none for the North American species.