Tamarack Cones

The new year's tamarack cones are forming just now.  A bit like the spruce I profiled earlier, the young cones are a deep reddish-purple, embedded with the needles on young branches.  Some branches seem totally laden with them.

 

We've planted about 20 tamarack in a back corner of our property, just to enjoy the yellow needles in the late fall.  Tamarack are one of those unusual trees, both coniferous (producing cones), and deciduous (losing its needles over the winter).  But one of the small trees has young cones that are yellowy-green rather than reddish-purple.  I'm going to have to wait and see what the difference is.