Alder Is Almost A Chameleon. Description, Types. Alder Is Black. Photo

2023 Author: Ava Durham | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-11-27 07:13

Whoever had to chop alder saw how, after passing through the dark gray smooth bark, the blade of the ax exposed its reddish-orange bast, which immediately changes color to brown-brown, and then to dark purple. Alder wood is also distinguished by this property. Freshly cut, it is white, after a few moments it begins to turn red, and when it dries, it acquires a delicate pink color. But the ability to change the color of wood is just one of the many interesting features of alder, called black (the bark of old trees is dark) or sticky (young buds, shoots and leaves are sticky).

No breed forms such dense, dark and even unsafe plantings for people. It is not easy to admire the beauty of alder here. Completely overgrown with dense tall grass, among which there are both angry nettles and the seed-shooting touch-me-not, gloomy alder forest conceals treacherous areas of deep bog. Then just look at your feet and have time to fight off annoying mosquitoes.

And alder, high, almost 30 meters, raised a slender trunk-column, which is crowned with a small greenish shiny crown, barely audible rustling by a distant peak. Only in late autumn does the alder shed its outfit, and what is remarkable - the leaves fall completely green. In the alder forest, only an occasional guest is a birch or a spruce, and bird cherry and viburnum always remain at the edge.

In general, the picture is very gloomy for a person who is not too familiar with the forest. The arborist is more optimistic. Impenetrable thicket? But a hectare of it gives up to 500 cubic meters of very valuable timber. In addition, alder is a rare soil enrichment: it forms nodules on the roots with bacteria that assimilate nitrogen from the air.

Alder multiplies rapidly. Her hemp give whole bunches of fast-growing shoots, capable of growing by 1.5-2 meters in the first year, and eventually reaching the size of their predecessors. However, seed reproduction prevails in alder. In early spring, brown-brown, birch-like catkins elongate, swell and release clouds of yellow pollen.

Picked up and scattered by the wind, it pollinates the small red inflorescences of female flowers on the neighboring trees. This period is also used by bees, vigorously collecting alder pollen for feeding the baby. Fertilized flowers form small cones, which are scattered in the spring of next year into hundreds of thousands of nut seeds, about 2 millimeters in size.

The opening of the bumps coincides with the spring flood. The spill promotes the dispersal of alder seeds over long distances. Keeping well on the water, they swim on it for a long time until they settle on the shore, where they germinate.

Alder species

There are about 30 species in the genus of alder, of which 12 grow on the territory of the former Soviet Union. Foresters consider the shrub alder to be the most "daring" among the domestic species: it firmly endures the conditions of the Arctic, grows throughout the forest-tundra, and sometimes in the tundra.

One cannot deny courage and bearded alder, which has inhabited the most swampy and disastrous places of swampy Colchis. And Nepalese alder is very unpretentious. She generously populated the rocky slopes of the Eastern Himalayas. The most valuable species in our country is still considered to be black alder, widespread almost everywhere in the European part of Russia and often extending beyond the Urals up to the Yenisei. Its beautiful, pinkish wood with a silky sheen is easy to process and very effective when polished. It is especially readily used for the manufacture of musical instruments and chiselware. Black alder wood charcoal is used for drawing and equipping anti-chemical protective equipment.

Both black and other types and forms of alder, due to their decorativeness, are planted in parks near rivers, lakes, ponds. It remains to add that alder fruits are the favorite food of siskins and tap dancers.

So our acquaintance with an interesting tree took place, about which foresters often say: "almost a chameleon."

Used material: S. I. Ivchenko - A book about trees