Subalpine Larch / Larix lyallii

Photographed at Plateau Mountain, Kananaskis, Alberta on 2July 2011. Oops, just discovered that I have posted this shot before. Guess I did forget to check my archives first. Amazing it doesn't happen more often, now that I have 8,793 images on Flickr!

"Larix lyallii, the Subalpine Larch, or simply Alpine Larch, is a deciduous, coniferous tree native to northwestern North America. It lives at very high altitudes (1800-2400 m) in the Rocky Mountains of Idaho, Montana, British Columbia, and Alberta. There is a disjunct population in the Cascade Range of Washington .... Larix lyallii is a small tree, growing from 10 to 25 m tall and shorter at higher elevations. It has a straight trunk with a sparse and somewhat conical crown. The branches are horizontal to the trunk, irregularly spaced and twisted. The twigs are finely hairy. The needles are 4-angled, 20-35 mm long and crowded in groups of 30-40 on short spurs. They are pale blue-green and deciduous, turning golden yellow in autumn.

The seed cones, 2.5-4 cm long, are red-purple when young but become dark brown with age. They have thin scales and narrow bracts that extend over the scales. The bark is thin and turns from yellow-gray to dark red-brown with age. It also becomes deeply furrowed into small, scaly plates. The tree is also one of the longest lived tree species. There is record of a specimen in Kananaskis, Alberta which was 1917 years old in 2012."

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larix_lyallii