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Alnus cordata
Also called Alder of Corsica, Hartbladige Els
Italian alder is a medium-sized deciduous tree from southern Italy and Corsica, grown for its glossy heart-shaped leaves and as a fast windbreak or landscape tree on difficult sites. It tolerates drier soils than most alders, though it is happiest with reasonable moisture.
Alnus cordata, the Italian alder, is a tree or shrub species belonging to the family Betulaceae, and native to the southern Apennine Mountains (Campania, Basilicata and Calabria, mainly on western mountain sides) and the north-eastern mountains of Corsica. It has been introduced in Sicily, Sardinia, and more recently in Central-Northern Italy, other European countries (France, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, United Kingdom) and extra-European countries (Chile, New Zealand), where it has become naturalised.
Like other alders, it is able to improve soil fertility through symbiotic nitrogen fixation with the bacteria Actinomyces alni (Frankia alni). It thrives on much drier soils than most other alders, and grows rapidly even under very unfavourable circumstances, which renders it extremely valuable for landscape planting on difficult sites such as mining spoil heaps and heavily compacted urban sites. It is commonly grown as a windbreak which helps with soil protection.
Alnus cordata is regarded as a desirable candidate for bioremediation due to its presence in an ecosystem being associated with beneficial effects such as increased amounts of organic carbon and nitrogen-rich litter.
Common Alder · Grey Alder · Himalayan Alder · White alder · Red Alder · Alder
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Alnus cordata by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
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.
