Mountain Alders
by Pamela Patch
Title
Mountain Alders
Artist
Pamela Patch
Medium
Photograph - Photography, Digital
Description
A stand of Pacific Alder trees and newly sprouted hog weed/cow parsley combined with blue sky and fluffy clouds made this hike memorable.
Fans of fairy tales are likely very familiar with the Alder tree. The popular genus of Alnus belongs to the birch family and is best known for its light and delicate features. What's more, the tree is a haven for woodland creatures commonly associated with fables and folktales.
With a few exceptions, alders are deciduous, and the leaves are alternate, simple, and serrated. The flowers are catkins with elongate male catkins on the same plant as shorter female catkins, often before leaves appear; they are mainly wind-pollinated, but also visited by bees to a small extent. These trees differ from the birches (Betula, the other genus in the family) in that the female catkins are woody and do not disintegrate at maturity, opening to release the seeds in a similar manner to many conifer cones.
While the Alder derives from a family of flowering plants, the tree is probably best known for the purple sheen that appears during the spring. The fast growing deciduous trees thrive along streams and rivers where they reach an average height of 40 feet.
Another distinctive characteristic of the Alder is the lichen which covers nearly all of its bark. The clingy lichen creates an intricate pattern of white and grey markings with small tinges of pale pink. The mosaic patterns are similar to hieroglyphs and make the tree look more like a birch when completely covered with the fruiting fungus.
Uploaded
March 19th, 2013
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