Larix griffithii

Sikkim larch is in the pine or Pinaceae family and is native to the eastern Himalaya in eastern Nepal, Sikkim, western Bhutan and southwestern China (Xizang), growing at 3000–4100 m altitude. It is a medium-sized conifer reaching a height of up to about 25 m.

• Crown is slender, conic with main branches level to swept up, side branchlets pendulous to them. Shoots are dimorphic (with long and short shoots).
• Needle-like foliage is deciduous, is 2–4 cm long, in dense bunches of 30–40 leaves , colour light green, turning to bright yellow or orange before falling late in autumn, leaving yellow-brown shoots bare until the next spring.
• Cones are non-fragmenting, erect, ovoid-conic, 4.0–7.5 cm long, with 50–100 moderately reflexed seed scales; each scale has an extended and reflexed bract; cones are dark purple when immature, turning dark brown in the fall and releasing seeds. Old cones can remain on the trees for many years, turning gray-black.
• Bark is gray, scaly and fissured.