Alnus nitida (Spach) Endl.

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Credits

Tim Baxter & Hugh A. McAllister (2021)

Recommended citation
Baxter, T. & McAllister, H.A. (2021), 'Alnus nitida' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/alnus/alnus-nitida/). Accessed 2024-03-18.

Genus

Synonyms

  • Clethropsis nitida Spach

Glossary

entire
With an unbroken margin.
glabrous
Lacking hairs smooth. glabrescent Becoming hairless.
ovate
Egg-shaped; broadest towards the stem.
raceme
Unbranched inflorescence with flowers produced laterally usually with a pedicel. racemose In form of raceme.

References

There are no active references in this article.

Credits

Tim Baxter & Hugh A. McAllister (2021)

Recommended citation
Baxter, T. & McAllister, H.A. (2021), 'Alnus nitida' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/alnus/alnus-nitida/). Accessed 2024-03-18.

A tall tree, said to become 100 ft high in its native place, with a trunk 10 to 15 ft in girth; bark of trunk blackish and ultimately scaling; young twigs with a little loose down at first, soon quite glabrous. Leaves thin-textured, ovate to oval, 3 to 6 in. long, 2 to 3 in. wide, rounded or broadly wedge-shaped at the base, slender-pointed, coarsely toothed to almost entire; shining-green above, pale beneath, and glabrous except for tufts of down in the vein-axils; stalks 12 to 1 in. long, slightly downy. The male catkins open in September, and are produced as many as five together in a raceme, each catkin 4 to 6 in. long, 14 in. in diameter, and pendulous. Fruits three to five together, erect, oblong, 34 to 114 in. long.

Native of the N.W. Himalaya; introduced to Kew in 1882 through seed sent by R. E. Ellis. The trees then raised succeeded well but eventually died of some form of bacterial decay. A young tree planted in 1952 is now 30 ft high and growing well. Trees at the Forestry Commission’s research station at Alice Holt, near Farnham, were planted at about the same time and have reached about the same height. It is at once distinguished from all other alders except maritima and nepalensis by flowering in autumn. The quadrangular scales on the bark are not developed on young trees.

From the Supplement (Vol. V)

There are two specimens of this rare species at Whitfield House, Herefordshire, measuring 74 × 312 ft and 65 × 5 ft (1984).