Plant · P-050

Speckled Alder

Alnus incana subsp. rugosa

Speckled Alder is a nitrogen-fixing shrub that thrives on wet, disturbed ground, nodulating through a soil fungus rather than needing a legume inoculant, and it forms dense thickets that deer and moose browse and that host the Green Comma butterfly. It gives no food yield at all, but its bark has a long history as a dye and tanning material, producing dark shades plus browns, reds and oranges. It self-sows and suckers hard from the root crown into thickets, so it needs its margin mowed or grazed to stay contained, with the thicket wood harvested as coppice fuel.