Larix decidua 'Himmel Broom' is an upright pyramidal form of European larch with typical light-green foliage that turns straw-yellow before being shed in fall. After 10 years of growth, a mature specimen will measure 5 feet (1.6 m) tall and 4 feet (1.3 m) wide, an annual growth rate of 6 to 8 inches (15 - 20 cm).
This cultivar originated as a witch's broom found in 1989 by Randy Dykstra of Fulton, Illinois, USA on a species tree at the Himmel residence near Cedar Rapids, Iowa. In his field notes, Chub Harper noted that the original broom was globose to round in structure, but grafted clones are distinctly pyramidal in growth habit. Large, old specimens exist in ACS Reference Gardens at the Heartland Collection within Bickelhaupt Arboretum, Clinton, Iowa and the Harper Collection at Hidden Lake Gardens, Tipton, Michigan.
