Alder: USING THIS PLANT

Primary Uses:
  • Ornamental tree or large shrub
  • Nitrogen Fixer – puts nitrogen back into the soil which may be used as a fertilizer to other plants (actinorhizal)
  • Windbreak or hedge (some species are great in maritime climates: Black, Italian, Gray, Seaside Alders)
  • Wood – Firewood, Timber, Furniture, Paper, Mushroom Production
 
Secondary Uses:
  • General insect (especially bees) nectar and pollen plant
  • Coppice plant (harvest every 12-25 yrs for kindling, firewood, tool handles, crafts, poles, fence posts, charcoal, and in any situation where the wood needs to be repeatedly exposed to water)
  • Plants with a shrub form can provide shelter for wildlife
  • Living Trellis – the lower branches can be pruned to allow fruiting vine species a place to grow. The fruiting plant typically then gets a natural boost of nitrogen from the Alder trellis.
  • Erosion Control – can be used to protect soil from erosion on steep banks
  • Fantastic pioneer species – a plant used to re-establish woodlands on former farmlands or eroded/difficult sites (fixes nitrogen, grows fast, produces lots of leaf litter for soil building, and dies back as other trees shade it out)
  • Biomass Production – since Alnus grows so fast
  • Dye from bark, shoots, catkins (mainly from Black Alder)
  • Tanning – leaves contain high amounts of tannin
  • Edible Catkins – raw or cooked, used as an emergency food source (Red Alder)
  • Edible Sap – can be used straight or concentrated to a syrup (Red Alder)
  • Traditional medicinal uses (primarily bark)
 
When young most Alders have horizontal patterns to the bark.
 
But as it ages, it gets more thick and fissured.

Muhammad Ramzan Rafique
Muhammad Ramzan Rafique

I am from a small town Chichawatni, Sahiwal, Punjab , Pakistan, studied from University of Agriculture Faisalabad, on my mission to explore world I am in Denmark these days..

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