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Alnus rugosa - (image 1 of 5)

Taxonomy

Family: Betulaceae

Habitat

Moist thickets and other wet areas.

Associates

Distribution

New England, south to VA and west to IA, MN, and SD and well north into Canada; circumboreal if included with A. incana.

Morphology

Deciduous shrub or small tree; twigs dark gray with prominent lenticels; leaves acute to short-acuminate, broadest near the middle, doubly serrate with irregular teeth; staminate catkins mature before leaves emerge; fruiting catkins short, mostly sessile or on short peduncles.

Notes

Flowers March to April

Wetland Indicator: Obligate

Associates with a nitrogen fixing bacterium in the genus Frankia, which is part of a larger group of bacteria called the actinomycetes. The symbiosis results in the formation of nodules on the roots of the alder. Considered to be a subspecies of the European A. incana.

References

Gleason, Henry A. and A. Cronquist. 1991. Manual of Vascular Plants of Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada. Second Ed.
The New York Botanical Garden. Bronx, NY

Swink, F. and G. Wilhelm. 1994. Plants of the Chicago Region.
Indiana Academy of Science. The Morton Arboretum. Lisle, Illinois.

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