Alnus glutinosa (L.) Gaertn. Common Alder

Alnus glutinosa (L.) Gaertn. - Common Alder

Scientific Description:

Tree to 20(−30) m with dark brown, fissured bark. Young shoots glutinous, glabrous or ± tomentose. Leaves obovate to suborbicular or broadly oblong-elliptic, 3.5−13 × 3−11 cm, retuse, rounded or slightly acute at apex, broadly cuneate at base, biserrate, glabrous except for tufts of hairs in axils of veins or pubescent-pilose beneath, with 4−11 pairs of veins; petiole ± glabrous or tomentose, 0.7−3 cm. Fruiting catkins 1−1.8 × 0.6−1.1 cm, distinctly stalked. Nuts dark- or reddish-brown, 2−3 mm, narrowly winged.

 

subsp. glutinosa

Twigs and petioles tomentose; leaves pubescent-pilose beneath, with 4-8(-9) pairs of lateral veins, obovate to suborbicular, retuse

 

Flowering time: April.

Habitat: Deciduous forest, damp places, by streams, s.l.-1600m.

 

Reference:

Yaltırık F (1982). Alnus glutinosa (L.) Gaertner, In: Davis PH (ed.), Flora of Turkey and the East Aegean Islands, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 7: 691–692.

Public Description:

Alnus glutinosa, known as “common alder”, “black alder” or “European alder”, is native to most of Europe, southwest Asia and northern Africa. It is a medium size, short-lived tree growing to a height of up to 30 metres. It blooms April and is found in deciduous forest edges, damp places, riverside corridors. The common alder provides food and shelter to wildlife, with a number of insects, lichens and fungi being completely dependent on the tree. The timber has been used in underwater foundations and for manufacture into paper and fibreboard, for smoking foods, for joinery, turnery and carving. The researches show that the seed extracts of this tree are active against pathogenic bacteria.

 

References:

Anonymous (2015). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alnus_glutinosa/, Accessed date: 22.12.2015.

Aksoy N (2012). Alnus Mill., In: Güner, A., Aslan, S., Ekim, T., Vural, M. & Babaç, M.T. (edlr.), Türkiye Bitkileri Listesi (Damarlı Bitkiler). Nezahat Gökyiğit Botanik Bahçesi ve Flora Araştırmaları Derneği Yayını. İstanbul, pp. 218.