Unknown Tree & Orchid...

[alexhitchmough]

Hi

This is my first post in this section, so apologies for missing the obvious . Any ideas what these two specimens are?



Thanks in advance

Alex

[Cheryl]

Possibly some form of larch for the tree and I think the flower is a Dog Violet - which one precisely I'm not sure

[davidbr]

The tree is a Larch, Larix sp. - there are two common (ish) ones and a hybrid between them, and if they can be told apart by needles alone, my ID skills aren't up to it

Your second picture isn't an orchid - it's a violet, I'd say Common Dog-violet (Viola riviniana).

[leifus]

Originally Posted by davidbr

The tree is a Larch, Larix sp. - there are two common (ish) ones and a hybrid between them, and if they can be told apart by needles alone, my ID skills aren't up to it

Your second picture isn't an orchid - it's a violet, I'd say Common Dog-violet (Viola riviniana).

im agreed with david

[alexhitchmough]

Thanks guys. From looking at a few photos on t'interweb this might be Japanese Larch, or possibly the hybrid variety. Any ideas how I could positively ID this? I'm now very curious why a Larch is growing in the middle of a forest of silver birch only 100 yards from my house!

[davidbr]

They are very similar, but the easiest way seems to be from the cones. The young cones should be on the tree by now, and those of Japanese Larch (Larix kaempferi) have bracts (the "scales") largely greenish with pink margins. European Larch, L. decidua, has bracts supposedly pink to red.

The hybrid, L. x marchinslii, appears to be intermediate between the two. Identification of all three is explained here on the BSBI's Plant Crib (top of page 5 of the pdf file) but I must admit I found their layout rather confusing.

As for how it got in your birch wood, certainly European Larch is thoroughly naturalised by seed in the UK nowadays and so, I assume, are the other two.

[JennyS]

Hi Alex, was the violet growing in damp/wet ground? Its got more of a look of Marsh Violet, Viola palustris to it ......

Mature cones are good for IDing between Larch species, the link below shows photos of the cones of Japanese and hybrid Larch for comparison

Larch species

[KeenTeen17]

it might be marsh violet - the way to ID is that the leaves are really broad and kidney shaped.