Hikes among the autumn larches

The larch, up close

The European larch, Larix decidua, is the only European conifer that sheds its needles in autumn: before they fall they turn a vivid yellow, and the branches stay bare all winter. It is a mountain tree through and through, native to the Alps and the Carpathians, most abundant between 1,000 and 2,000 metres but able to reach the tree line at around 2,400. Its wood, resinous, hard and durable, was for centuries a staple material of the Alps, used for beams, floors, fences and roof shingles, and you can still recognise it in the huts and haylofts along the paths.

The larch does not rule every forest, however. In the Mont Avic Natural Park much of the soil derives from serpentinite, a rock that produces poor ground unsuited to larch and Norway spruce, and here the mountain pine thrives instead, in a forest of roughly a thousand hectares that stays green while the larches around it turn. The contrast is easy to see on the climb to the Rifugio Barbustel and on the ten-lakes loop, and it makes the park look unlike its neighbouring valleys even in the same week. The colour never lasts long, in any case, so if the webcams show full yellow it is better not to wait for the following weekend.