OF Ohio 



53 



SMOOTH ALDER 



Alnus rugosa. (Du Rot) Sprenget 



THE Smooth Alder, also called Black Alder, is com- 

 mon along streams and other wet places. It usually 

 remains a shrub, but occasionally becomes 20 feet high. 



The leaves are simple, alternate, obovate. rounded at apex, 

 wedge - shaped at 

 base, finely tooth- 

 ed along margin. 



The flowers ap- 

 pear before the 

 leaves and are of 

 two kinds. The 

 pollen-bearing oc- 

 cur in drooping 

 tassels 2 to 5 

 inches long. The 

 seed-producing are 

 greenish to purpl- 

 ish, with scarlet 

 styles. They are 

 about 54 of an 

 inch long and oc- 

 cur in 2's or 3's at 

 the end of the 

 branches. 



The fruit is a 

 structure about j^ 

 cone-like, woody 

 to ^ of an inch 

 long. 



The bark is thin, smooth, often grooved, grayish-green, 

 dotted with numerous brown lenticels and marked with 

 white blotches. The twigs are greenish to grayish brown, 

 dotted with brownish lenticels and marked with leaf-scars 

 with 3 bundle-scars. The buds are alternate, >^ of an inch 

 long, evidently stalked, blunt pointed, covered with 2 scales. 

 The wood is yellowish-brown and marked with broad rays. 



The Smooth Alder is found from Maine to Florida and 

 Texas and west to Minnesota. It occurs locally throughout 

 Ohio, but is of no commercial importance. 



SMOOTH ALDER 



One-fourth natural size. 



Twig section with bud, and leaf-scar enlarged. 



