The tree species Larix decidua is commonly known as European Larch. It is native to the mountains of central Europe, in the Alps and Carpathians, with disjunctive lowland populations in northern Poland and southern Lithuania. It has been naturalized and cultivated in North America, chiefly in the United States of Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont, as well as the Canadian Provinces Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

A long-lived, large deciduous coniferous tree reaching 35 meters, with a trunk up to 1 m diameter, the European larch can grow in stands of ramrod-straight trees and narrow crowns (Fig. 1). The crown is conic when young, becoming broad with age; the main branches are level to upswept, with the side branches often pendulous. The shoots are dimorphic, with growth divided into long shoots (typically 10-50 cm long) and bearing several buds, and short shoots only 1-2 mm long with only a single bud. Inconspicuous red flowers bloom in mid-spring. The leaves are needle-like, light green, 2-4 cm long which turn bright yellow before they fall in the autumn, leaving the pale yellow-buff shoots bare until the next spring.