"Sophia" wrote in message
om...
Can someone help identify a tree that is growing in our front yard?
It is an evergreen, about 25' and probably around 25 yrs old. It has
blue-green needles (~3/4" long) growing mostly in clusters. The cones
grow from the middle of the needle clusters. They are on average 1
1/4" long, skinny, soft and scaly. They resemble brown caterpillars,
and there are tons of them. The bark is dark and scaly.
We have lived here for 19 years and the tree was probably planted the
year before we bought the house. At the time it was 8'-9' and had
sparse unevenly spaced horizontal branches (my husband nicknamed it
'Bill-the-Cat tree' for its spastic appearance).

A landscaper we used called it a larch, but it doesn't look like any
pictures of larches that I found.

Thanks!
Sophia

Sounds like some species of Cedrus or true cedar. Foliage grows in tufts or
clusters and those caterpillar-like things are actually the male flowers.
Females cones are held upright, but usually appear only well up into the top
portion of the tree and shatter when mature, so not nearly as readily
noticeable. Couldn't find a good online photo illustrating the male flowers,
but here's a pretty good link on the other qualities of this tree.
http://www.richmond.edu/~jhayden/conifers/cedrus.html


btw, you might want to look for another landscaper with more smarts -
larches are deciduous and their flowers are little nubbins that appear
before the new needles are fully extended and not at all caterpillar-like in
appearance. Larches also tend to have pink or reddish colored bark, not the
dark charcoal gray of the cedars.

pam - gardengal