Interesting facts

The Romans encountered the larch around 2000 years ago and called it larix – the name given to it by the Gallic population of the Alps. The scientific epithet decidua comes from the Latin deciduus = falling off, and describes the unusual habit of the larch of shedding its needles in autumn.
Although its needles appear airy, the wood of the larch is heavy, very resinous and thus very weather-resistant. In earlier times, hollowed out larch trunks served as water ducts for wells. As shingles the wood made a durable and reliable roofing material. Indeed, hard-wearing larch wood has many uses, including railway sleepers, fence posts, window frames, steps and floorboards. Venice is built on larch poles. In Zermatt in Switzerland a house built of larch wood is said to have stood for a thousand years.
Larch wood was already sought after in ancient times as a source of ‘Venice Turpentine’. Even today this resin is used in the industrial manufacture of paints and glues for glass and porcelain.
Some plants, such as the Flowering or Manna Ash (Fraxinus ornus) or the oak manna species Quercus vallonea and Quercus persica, exude a fluid which is 80% mannitol (a sugar alcohol) and is used as a sugar substitute, among other things. This sap known as manna is also found in the larch. Its needles produce the so-called ‘Manna of Briançon’ which has laxative properties. Incidentally: the manna of the bible was probably not this kind of sap. It is more likely to have been a scale insect secretion or an edible lichen, Lecanora esculenta.
Several types of fungi live in symbiosis with the larch: for example the edible and tasty larch bolete. However, the larch is resistant to pathogenic or wood-destroying fungi.
Since ancient times the larch has been regarded as a sacred, protecting tree. Thus in many regions of Germany, larch twigs are used to decorate doors and windows. They are called Hexenrüttel or witches’ wands and are thought to give protection against evil spirits and lightening strikes. Southern Slavs hang a piece of larch bark around their children’s necks to ward off the evil eye. It is said that good wood fairies like the larch. They are supposed to set up residence in the light larch groves and help lost travellers back on the right path.