Red Alder
Alnus rubra
A fast pioneer tree of streambanks and clearings with smooth gray bark and dangling catkins. A nitrogen-fixer that enriches the soil and feeds siskins and redpolls with its tiny cone seeds. The sap is a traditional sweet drink, and the inner bark a famine-food flour — but the bark must be dried first, since it's mildly emetic when fresh.
- Family
- Betulaceae
- Type
- tree
- Lifespan
- perennial
- Height
- 90–90 ft
- Spacing
- 35–50 ft apart
- Light
- sun, part shade, shade
- Soil moisture
- moist, wet
- Soil pH
- acidic, neutral
- Bloom
- March, April
- Bloom colors
- red, green, brown
- Wildlife value
- mammals, songbirds, larval host
- Caterpillar hosts
- ~255 butterfly & moth species
- Landscape uses
- specimen, rain garden
- Native states
- AK, CA, ID, MT, OR, WA