As this web site progresses, we hope to be able to include photos of each plant species along with their description. Tamaracks are trees with needles but, unlike other conifers, they are deciduous. The needles turn bright yellow in fall and are dropped for the winter.
Tamaracks prefer moist to wet soils and full sun.
They can be fast-growing trees, reaching heights of between 40 and 80 feet depending on conditions. Black spruce trees are slow-growing evergreens with very short needles. They grow in moist to wet soils, in full sun and reach heights of 30 to 40 feet. Black spruces are adapted to the wet, low-nutrient conditions of sphagnum bogs, a habitat type common in North central Wisconsin. A black spruce may be well over 100 years old and yet be only about 4 to 6 inches in diameter at breast height.