Alder

Parts Usually Used

Bark, leaves

Description of Plant(s) and Culture

Red Alder Black alder (A. glutinosa) is a deciduous tree up to 80 feet high; the alternate leaves are round-obovate, usually doubly serrate, scalloped, and have a tuft of down on the underside. The flowers are segregated by sex into separate catkins, the reddish-purple female ones developing into hard cones that contain the seeds. 2-8 catkins will occur in a cluster on a forked peduncle.

Red alder (A. rubra) grows as a shrub or tree. It has elliptic-ovate leaves that are dark green on top and rusty-haired underneath. Found in evergreen and redwood forests from Northern California to Alaska. Uses are the same as A. glutinosa. Smooth alder (A. serrulata) sometimes called the Hazel alder, is a shrub or tree with blackish bark that is lightly speckled with small, grayish to orange lenticels.

Its leaves are elliptic to obovate, finely serrate and usually fine-haired underneath. It can be found from Nova Scotia to Oklahoma, Florida, and Louisiana. Medicinally used the same as black alder.

Where Found

Smooth Alder Black alder (A. glutinosa) grows in Europe, Asia, North Africa, and locally in North America. Found in cooler regions, forming dense stands around swamps and along streams and rivers. Cool, moist or even wet soils.

Medicinal Properties

Astringent, bitter tonic, emetic, hemostatic, mucilaginous, cathartic, alterative

Legends, Myths and Stories

” Native Americans sometimes dyed basket grass with alder bark in a brilliant burnt orange shade, which fades with age to a rich brown.

Uses

Historical herbalists noted that fresh alder bark acted as an emetic, leading them to rely on the dried bark for other applications. A decoction of the bark was traditionally employed as a gargle for sore throats and pharyngitis, as well as a mouthwash intended to clean the teeth, firm the gums, and address toothaches. Practitioners also utilized the powdered bark and leaves as a general tonic.

When boiled in vinegar, the inner bark was historically prepared as an external wash or poultice for lice, scabies, psoriasis, sores, itching, and various skin inflammations, as well as for rheumatism, dropsy, burning feet, and swellings. Additionally, historical sources recorded the use of the plant as an expulsion agent for intestinal worms in children.

Bibliography

The Herb Book , by John Lust, Bantam Books, 666 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY. copyright 1974. Culpeper’s Complete Herbal & English Physician: Updated With 117 Modern Herbs , by Nicholas Culpeper, Meyerbooks, publisher, PO Box 427, Glenwood, Illinois 60425, 1990, (reprint of 1814) The Herbalist Almanac , by Clarence Meyer, Meyerbooks, publisher, PO Box 427, Glenwood, Illinois 60425, copyright 1988, fifth printing, 1994 Indian Uses of Native Plants , by Edith Van Allen Murphey, Meyerbooks, publisher, PO Box 427, Glenwood, Illinois 60425, copyright 1958, print 1990 Eastern/Central Medicinal Plants , by Steven Foster and James A.

, Houghton Mifflin Company, 215 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10000 The Magic of Herbs , by David Conway, published by Jonathan Cape, Thirty Bedford Square, London, England. (Out of print) Indian Herbalogy of North America , by Alma R. , 180 Varick Street, New York, NY 10014, first printed by the United States Government Printing Office, Washington, in 1928, this Dover edition 1974 The Rodale Herb Book: How to Use, Grow, and Buy Nature’s Miracle Plants (An Organic gardening and farming book) , edited by William H.

Hylton, Rodale Press, Inc. , 1974