Alnus incana (L.) Moench

Tall colonial shrub or small tree; winter buds evidently stalked, with 2–3 equal scales; lvs oval, elliptic, or ovate, broadest near or below the middle, obtuse to short-acuminate, sharply and irregularly double-serrate or almost lobulate, broadly obtuse to rounded at base, with mostly 8–14 principal veins on a side, soon becoming pale and glaucous beneath, ± pubescent, especially on the veins, not glutinous; staminate catkins mature before the lvs begin to open; anthers virtually sessile; fruiting catkins mostly sessile or only short-pedunculate, crowded in small, naked infls, 1–1.5(2) cm, seldom much over 1 cm thick; frs 2–3.5 mm, narrowly coriaceous-winged or merely thin-margined; 2n=28. Wet soil; circumboreal, s. to Md., W.Va., Ill., and the w. cordillera. E. Amer. pls, as here described, are var. americana Regel (A. rugosa; A. incana ssp. rugosa)

Mountains, especially on poor soil. Wet sandy or gravelly soils, usually along streams and rivers, but also in ponds and swamps. It is only found in open sunny areas, being unable to compete in dense shade.

Can be grown by cuttings or seedlings.