62 



Common Trees 



SMOOTH ALDER 



Alnus rugosa, (DuRoi) Sprengel 



HPHE SMOOTH ALDER, also called Black Alder, is common 

 A along streams and other wet places. It usually remains 

 a shrub, but occasionally it becomes 20 feet high. 



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

 wedge-shaped at base, finely toothed along margin. 



The flowers ap- 

 p e a r before the 

 leaves and are of 

 two kinds. The 

 pollen - bearing oc- V 

 cur in drooping 

 tassels 2 to 5 

 inches long. The 

 seed-producing are 

 greenish to pur- 

 plish with scarlet 

 styles. They are 

 about Ya of an 

 inch long and oc- 

 cur in 2's or 3's at 

 the end of the 

 branches. 



The fruit is a 

 cone - like woody 

 structure about Yi 

 to Ya, 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, Yi 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 is common in New York 

 south of the Adirondacks. The Speckled Alder (Alnus 

 incana) is commoner northward across the State. At higher 

 elevations in the northern part of the State the Mountain 

 Alder (Alnus viridis) is found. Alnus incana, a large shrub, 

 is generally distributed in wet soil throughout the State. 



SMOOTH ALDER 



One-fourth natural size. 

 Twig section with bud and leaf-scar, enlarged. 



