Lives of the Trees by Diana Wells

Author:Diana Wells
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Published: 2010-09-07T16:00:00+00:00

* * *

The golden larch of China isn’t a true larch. Its botanical name Pseudolarix amabilis means “lovable false larch,” and it surely is, with the most wonderful golden foliage in fall. It’s deciduous, like true larches. Unlike common larches its cones aren’t retained on the tree after the seeds drop. The cones themselves are flared, rather like artichokes, and the tree is valued as an ornamental rather than as a timber tree. Robert Fortune unexpectedly came across golden larches growing next to a monastery high in the mountains of China and sent specimens home to Britain, in 1853. Their Chinese name was jin song, or “golden pine.” Chinese gardeners, way back, grew dwarfed larches in pots, but they can reach 130 feet high and 8 feet in girth. They grow much more slowly than true larches.

Larch resin was used for caulking boats. In northern Europe and Asia larch bark was sometimes grated, mixed with broth, and eaten. A fungus called agaricus that grows on Russian larches (L. siberica) was once used medicinally. Most important, though, was larch “turpentine” often made from boiling the cones. John Josseyln, writing to describe the New World to prospective settlers (see Hawthorn), wrote that this “comes nearest of any to the right Turpentine.” He explained that American turpentine “is singularly good to heal wounds and to draw out the malice . . . of any Ach, rubbing the place therewith.” This would have been a comfort to people preparing to leave their familiar medicines and arrive in a foreign world of unknown flowers and trees. To us it would be the equivalent of going to a drugstore with strange labels we could not comprehend.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.