Japanese Larch (Larix kaempferi)

The morning was filled with trips to the tip recycling centre with the products of my tree surgery at FredaH's and the "reserve management" at home. The afternoon was forecast to be showery so before it started I decided to go for a walk and look for some blips.

I was determined to get something other than a close up of a flower from the garden. I tried rare breed pigs, views etc but in the end these were so unusual I decided on them.

I have never seen Larch cones like this before. They are this years female cones (OK I have seen that before) what I have never seen are the shoots coming out of the top of the cones. A determined google hasn't cast any light on this all I found were 2 pictures (both incidentally Larch) saying "unusual cones".

I have decided they are Japanese Larch as the scales of the cones are recurved and the young bark on the twigs is orange (bottom left). Hybrids between kaempferi and European Larch (Larix decidua) are not exactly rare and are planted but I don't think this is a hybrid as to me the signs were clearer than they would be in a hybrid.