the value of alder (Alnus glutinosa)

I have a tidbit of information about alder trees and couldn't find a thread for alders, so I'm starting one!

This is the place to add everything we all know about alders!

The tidbit that is new to me comes from doug bullock: alder sap can be used for syrup like maple trees!

alder trees grow like weeds..they will nurse small seedlings of other trees..they are good fodder food for wildlife..they can be coppiced and will continue to grow back..they will grow in swamps or fairly dry soil alike..they make good wood to use for crafts, esp things like rustic furniture and arbors.

i have alder forest in a swamp north east of our house..the birds and wildlife simply love these trees..they grow really fast and make a good privacy screen or windbreak

With a chaff cutter or similar, alder leaves can be an important part of swine feed.

The male catkins are edible to humans, and very high in protein. I believe an effort to breed more-palatable and higher-calorie ones would be a long-term good.

The nodules are much larger than for legume trees, and reportedly much slower to rot.

at what stage and how fixed are the catkins edible

I have tons of alders and was not aware they were food worthy.

i really am excited about each and every new native food i find on our property..seems i could live on the plants growing naturally here..so long as i had to..pretty much exclusively..however..i'm not sure i would want to ..but if i had to.

i'll be paying attention to this thread as more uses for those pesky alders the better..i have hundreds of them !!

son just pushed a pile of brush up against our alder swamp..and hubby and I were talking and I was suggesting using logs up against the brush piles along the alder swamp as a barrier fence (we have access to the other side)..i thought of making it like a mound to rot of mixed trees and rotting branches..mostly as a wildlife refuge in our woods..maybe planting the edges with vines like grapes and woodbine and honeysuckles and maybe some shrubs..pretty much fencelike

I have been messing with red alder (A. rubra) as a nurse crop.
The wood is much more easily chopped up for mulch when it is green

The stems seem to have latent buds near the terminus of each annual growth increment, but not in between. Thus if you cut them low to the ground they die, but if you cut them high, you'll get one or two layers of sprouts. I don't yet know if they truely have pollarding potential. but that'd be good.

The wood is good fuel and good tool handles. The crotch of a branch makes a nice angle for an adze, and was traditionally used by the Salish nations.

They are reportedly good for mushroom culture but the bark is thin and so moisture management and wax sealing of the logs is critical. They are the natural host of Oyster mushroom, an easy to grow and yummy to eat NW native.

Then bark makes a good red-brown dye.

Collect seed cones when early winter storms knock off high branches. Store them in a paper bag in doors, when the cones open they dry and seeds fall out. They are short lived. Plant immediately in winter on the surface of bare ground.

Conversion of conifer forest to red alder forest is in part responsible for tipping Hood Canal into nitrogen induced anoxia, streams running out of alder forest have higher nitrogen levels then conifer forests.

Brenda Groth wrote:
at what stage and how fixed are the catkins edible

This guy says as they first emerge 'till the stage when they release a lot of pollen, raw or boiled.

Some highlights:

Along with a slightly nutty taste from the yellow, powdery pollen, the catkin structure itself was crunchy and pleasing, if not a little bitter...For ten days I ate ten raw catkins in the morning. Then for 20 days I ate 20 boiled catkins (after drying and collecting the pollen). At no time did I feel any ill effects...The Plants for a Future Database (www.pfaf.org) [states] that the catkins are astringent and have been chewed to alleviate diarrhea...I find alder catkins to be a refreshingly seasonal dietary addition, especially when boiled (I liken the taste to corn and potatoes) seasoned with western coltsfoot ash-salt or added raw to boiled worms. Boiled alder seedlings have also proven to be meal-worthy.

I understand Alder trees provide massive amounts of Nitrogen into the soil when cut back, i.e. coppice, or chopped down to be used for various reasons.

my son has been pushing back a large alder forest in a swampy area..we are leaving an area about 20 to 30' wide of the alders standing..and pushing down the alders on the west..woods side..of this strip..

these alders are being covered with salvaged brush and logs from clearing areas of our forest of underbrush..and the entire mess (knocked down alders, brush and logs) is being covered with soil from a dig where we are deepening a nearby pond.

thus hugel beds along the west side of an alder swamp/forest area.

next year this area will be overplanted with berry bearing shrubs and small understory fruit trees, i'm sure there will be plenty of oxygen in the soil to make this quite fertile as well as fertility from the rotting wood, and pond floor scummy soil and clay mix.

Many (all?) Alnus form a symbiosis with a bacteria of the genus Frankia, which fixes atmospheric nitrogen, which I've seen reported at a rate similar to other N-fixers... 100-200 lbs/acre/year.

Has anyone figured out a alder guild??

I'm planning to plant a black alder on my allotment for a number of reasons ie: shade (as I have none). to take advantage of the extra nitrogen, and as it is indigenous to northern Europe I hope it will attract more wildlife (birds insects etc)..

I've been looking on line for quite some time but I haven't found any mention of an alder guild. If no one has read/created one could someone please have a look around their alders, and let me know whats growing under and around them?

much appreciated.

Richie.

Far from N. Europe, but here is a series of monographs on native forest plant associations in the Puget Trought (W. WA, USA). There is likely similar work done for the British Isles...
http://www1.dnr.wa.gov/nhp/refdesk/communities/index.html

well for a guild you usually look to see what is growing in nature near your alders, in our neck of the woods we have several things growing with our alders, a self seeded apple grew right next to one, aspens love them, red maples, oaks, wild cherry, goldenrod, grasses, raspberries and blackberries.

You could build a food garden guild from many of those such as cherry/apple and brambles..but alders can be invasive on wet property so be careful, also they sucker freely.

Alders were known as "biscuit wood" in Maine. They would produce a quick hot fire which was perfect for cooking a batch of biscuits in an wood cookstove.

I have heard that alder ash was used in the making of gunpowder because it's such a fine ash.

What I know about this tree so far: it's a nitrogen fixer, it thrives in my climate (temperate maritime), it grows lots of dead-straight rods after it's cut back, and the logs are good for growing oyster and shiitake mushrooms. Anyone got any other benefits of it?

Here's the Plants for a Future listing for it: http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Alnus%20glutinosa

Lovely, thanks!

spalted alder is popular with wood workers and sells for a pretty substantial price. that's alder wood with a certain amount of decay that creates some really nice dark streaks in the wood.

See also http://www.permies.com/bb/index.php?topic=4766.0

this appears to be the species of alder that is growing in our area, but it could be a different one. We have NOT made good use of this plant other than allowing it to grow and form nurse plants for trees and to protect wildlife. I know the wood is supposed to be useful but we have never really put it to use..I hope to develop more ideas for using the wood and begin to harvest it for use on and around our property. Was NOT aware that it would hold up well to standing water and I'm wondering if i can't be using it more for outdoor furniture and trellis type situations? I thought it rotted fairly easily .

we cut down quite a bit of it and piled it up last year, and I ran a bunch of it through the chipper this past month..so I will observe how it stands up to the weather and if any wild mushrooms grow on the chips

We have alnus rubra here; similar enough. aside form the above, i gather the leaves and use for mulch. some of the best soil i have in my garden is from the mulch of these. - leaves, twigs, easy to gather, light and absorbent, make a fine bedding for chooks. I stockpile, add to compost, etc. great stuff.

back to doug bullocks syrup thot- , alder can be used for syrup. Im doing this this year for first time.

cheap, easy in theory. you know how that rolls.

1) tree must be in frost zone where it thaws and freezes daily in late winter/spring in order to produce.

2) 8+d (not unussual, but the bigger the tree,. the more dead air at forest floor, thus more chance of thermal mediations- less temp flux=less sap flow.

3) 40 g sap makes on gallon syrup. 1 tree at 10d makes about 10g syrup/year.

4)bears love syrup.

so while taps are cheap, bears may maul the taps and screw the trees up for several seasons, spill you buckets, and get in your caches. I have bears. love them Must think around them....

and, its not likely a market niche for a few years after I settle into production- probably 6-10 years, if at all. global warming, syrup is supposed to be lower quality/less flavor than maple syrup, etc.... home use, sure, but market? difficult to imagine.

what are chooks?

thanks for the info about using the twigs and leaves..I'm realizing the waste i'm leaving here by not using my alder for more than what I'm using it for..and I have a lot of it..and when you cut it, it grows back very quickly from the roots

Brenda Groth wrote:
what are chooks?

that's how folks say "chicken" in several of the Commonwealth countries. seems to have spread to the U.S. west coast as well.

red alder- cant speak for glutinosa- but rubra- buds are also tasty one of my favorite first salads- in march- is sorrel and alder buds with miners lettuce. some blue cheese crumbles, and a splash of vinagrette. those buds- thats the first yummy thing of my wildcrafting year. sorrel is ubiquitous.

thanks for the hint on the alder buds, I'll put them on my list of things to try this spring. I'm always looking for a new treat to eat that I don't have to plant

Joel Hollingsworth wrote:
This guy says as they first emerge 'till the stage when they release a lot of pollen, raw or boiled.

Some highlights:

Surprising. I should try this sometime.

I had a stand of alder once that I converted (briefly) to horse pasture. They are short lived and quick growing so I didn't have a problem knocking a patch of them down. They laid on the ground for a year, then I set fire to the area, burned em all up. The horse is long gone but that pasture now has grass 6ft high!

Alder cuttings are great for stabilizing eroding stream banks, just cut them into 2 or 3 foot sections and bury them halfway in the mud.

I love to use rotten alder for a punk fire when I am smoking fish and meat, it has a really nice flavor.

Alder is an excellent TONE wood. It is the wood of choice for Fender solid body electric guitars made in America. The other tone wood that is similar is Ash, but it has a pronounced grain that makes it hard to finish smooth so more Alder has been used for that reason but .. when compared to Ash, Alder is heavier.