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Alnus alnobetula
Also called European Green Alder, Mountain Alder
Alnus alnobetula, the green alder, is a common shrub or small tree widespread across much of Europe, Asia, and North America. Many sources refer to it as Alnus viridis but this is a later name, synonymous with Alnus alnobetula subsp. alnobetula. The species was first described by Jakob Friedrich Ehrhart in 1783 as Betula alnobetula, while the name viridis was first used later, as Betula viridis, in 1785.
There are five to seven subspecies, some treated as separate species by some authors; the Plants of the World Online (POWO) database currently accepts five subspecies:
Green alder is sometimes used for afforestation on infertile soils which it enriches by means of its nitrogen-fixing nodules, while not growing large enough to compete with the intended timber crop. It can add 50kg of nitrogen per hectare (20 kg per acre) per year to the soil. The leaves have been used in the traditional Austrian medicine externally or internally as tea for treatment of infections and fever.
Andean Alder · Italian Alder · Alnus cremastogyne · Japanese Green Alder · Formosan alder · Common Alder · Manchurian Alder · Grey Alder · Japanese alder · Evergreen alder · Iberian Alder · Alnus mandshurica
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Alnus alnobetula by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
