Most conifers in Michigan are green year round. The Tamarack (Larix laricina) is the only one that loses its needles for winter. The brown needles remind me of an artificial tree I almost bought by mistake in Uruguay.
Kalamazoo is at the southern edge of this tree's range which extends to northern Canada. Historically, tamarack has been used for many purposes from ships to paper to decoys.
Ghost forest at Silver Lake Dunes
-
Perched on a plateau and rising more than 100 feet high above Silver Lake,
the heart of these dunes are totally devoid of any vegetation, even dune
grass.
19 hours ago