Alder, English

The English Alder is a tree of damp soils and meadow edges. It is a beautifully straight tree, growing to heights of fifty feet, sometimes more. Its leaves are quiet wide, double toothed with blunt ends reaching lengths of two to five inches. The young leaves and twigs are quite sticky, especially in spring, when they produce a gummy substance. The tree flowers in mid-spring and its fruits resemble small pinecones, called catkins, on elegant, slender stalks. The trunk of the tree is dark with deeply scarred rings sometimes found close or actually growing together on the older bark.
Shrub or small tree to 20 m, the bark initially gray-brown, smooth, lustrous, later dark gray and rougher. Leaves rotund or broadly ovate to ellipsoid or ovate, 4–9 cm long, 3–7 cm wide, basally rounded the petiole 1–2 cm long; stipules obtuse, soon deciduous. Male cones purplish brown in autumn and winter, brown in the spring, 6–12 cm long, in clusters of 3–5. Fruits rounded, the seeds winged. Seeds ca 700,000–750,000/kg, but yielding only ca 20–25,000 plantable seedlings.

Common Name:	Alder, English
Botanical Name:	Alnus glutinosa
Habitat:	Woodlands and wetlands
Medicinal Uses:	Induces vomiting, acts as an astrigent, mouthwash for toothaches and other irritations of the mouth, useful for skin irritations such as bug bites, poison ivy, rashes, hemostatic, toothpaste. According to Hartwell (1967–1971), the leaves are decocted in folk remedies for cancer of the breast, duodenum, esophagus, face, pylorus, pancreas, rectum, throat, tongue, and uterus. The bark and/or roots are used for cancers and inflammatory tumors of the throat. Reported to be alterative, astringent, detersive, diuretic, sudorific, tonic, and vermifuge, black alder is a folk remedy for cancer, fever, foot ailments, tumors, and worms (Duke and Wain, 1981). The bark decoction is taken as a gargle for angina and pharyngitis, as an enema in hematachezia.
Preparation and Dosage:	1 small palmful of dried bark and leaves in a little over one cup of water boiled 3 mins and steeped for two mins for tea. Internal use: one-quarter cup of tea in the morning and one quarter cup of tea in the evening. Fresh bark should be prepared the same way to induce vomiting.
Parts Used:	Bark and Leaves
Location:	Northeastern and Northern United States, United Kingdom, Eastern Europe
Classification:	Tree
Bibliography:	Encyclopedia of Medicinal Herbs by Joseph Kadans, N.D., Ph.D. Copyright © 1970 Parker Publishing Company, Inc. pg 27 The Cherokee Herbal by J.T.Garret Copyright © 2003 by J.T. Garret pp 56, 113, 205 Tom Brown's Guide to Wild Edible and Medicinal Plants by Tom Brown Jr. Copyright © 1985 by Tom Brown, Jr. pp 60-63 Welcome to NewCROP™ the New Crop Resource Online Program Copyright © 2004 Perdue Univerity