Alnus acuminata

• Overview
• Interesting Facts
• Common Names
• Description
• Biology
• Taxonomy
• Similar Species
• More Info
• Further Reading
• Notes

Overview

Interesting Facts

Common Names

Description

Family Betulaceae

Trees or shrubs deciduous, monoecious. Stipules present, free , often deciduous, rarely persistent . Leaves alternate, simple , petiolate , usually doubly serrate, rarely simply serrate, lobulate , or entire; veins pinnate. Flowers unisexual . Male inflorescence precocious , elongate , pendulous, with numerous overlapping bracts; each bract usually subtending a small dichasium with 1-3 male flowers; stamens as many as and opposite sepals or, if sepals obsolete , then stamens of inflorescence to 20; filaments very short, connate or nearly so; anthers 2-loculed, thecae connate or separate, opening by longitudinal slits. Female inflorescence pendulous or erect , with numerous overlapping bracts; each bract subtending a small dichasium with 2 or 3 flowers; calyx with 1-6 scalelike lobes , or obsolete; petals absent; ovary inferior, 2-loculed; styles 2, free; ovules 2, or 1 by abortion , pendulous from near apex of each locule. Fruit a nut or nutlet , winged or not. Seed 1, with straight embryo and flat or thickened cotyledons, without endosperm.

Six genera and 150-200 species: mainly in Asia, Europe, and North and South America; six genera (one endemic) and 89 species (56 endemic) in China.

Because of evolutionary divergence within the Betulaceae, the family has often been divided into tribes (i.e. , Betuleae, Carpineae, and Coryleae) or more recently into subfamilies (J. J. Furlow, J. Arnold Arbor . 71: 1-67. 1990) .[1]

Genus Alnus

Trees or shrubs , to 35 m ; trunks usually several, branching excurrent to deliquescent. Bark of trunks and branches light gray to dark brown, thin, smooth , close; lenticels often present, pale , prominent , sometimes horizontally expanded. Wood nearly white, turning reddish upon exposure to air , moderately light and soft, texture fine. Branches, branchlets , and twigs nearly 2-ranked to diffuse ; young twigs uniform or ( Alnus subg. Alnobetula ) differentiated into long and short shoots . Winter buds stipitate (nearly sessile in Alnus subg. Alnobetula ), narrowly to broadly ovoid or ellipsoid , terete , apex acute to rounded ; scales 2--3, valvate , or ( Alnus subg. Alnobetula ) several, imbricate, smooth, or ( Alnus subg. Clethropsis ) sometimes none. Leaves borne on long or short shoots, 3-ranked to nearly 2-ranked. Leaf blade ovate to elliptic or obovate , thin to leathery, base variable, cuneate to rounded, margins doubly serrate, serrate, serrulate , or nearly entire, apex variable, acute to obtuse or acuminate to rounded; surfaces glabrous to tomentose , abaxially sometimes resinous-glandular. Inflorescences: staminate catkins lateral , in racemose clusters or ( Alnus subg. Clethropsis ) solitary, formed ( Alnus subg. Alnus and Clethropsis ) during previous growing season and exposed or enclosed in buds during winter, or ( Alnus subg. Clethropsis ) formed and expanding during same growing season, expanding before or with leaves; pistillate catkins proximal to staminate catkins, solitary or in relatively small racemose clusters, erect to nearly pendulous, ovoid to ellipsoid, firm; scales and flowers crowded, developing and maturing at same time as staminate catkins. Staminate flowers in catkins, 3 per scale; stamens (3--) 4(--6) ; anthers and filaments undivided. Pistillate flowers usually 2 per scale. Infructescences erect or pendulous; scales persistent long after release of fruits, with 5 lobes , greatly thickened, woody. Fruits tiny samaras, lateral wings 2, leathery or membranaceous , reduced or essentially absent in some species. x = 7.

Species ca. 25 (8 sp: forested temperate and boreal Northern Hemisphere; North America; Asia.

Alders resemble birches but are easily distinguished from them by the infructescences, which consist of persistent , 5-lobed, woody scales (versus deciduous, 3-lobed, thin scales). Except in members of Alnus subg. Alnobetula Petermann (which have nearly sessile buds with several imbricate scales), alders are also distinctive in their stipitate buds bearing two stipular scales. The fruits, borne two to a scale, are laterally winged , although the wings are sometimes reduced or absent.

The genus is diverse , including several very distinct lines of specialization. The shrubby or arborescent Alnus subg. Alnus is characterized by winter buds with long stalks and two valvate scales, inflorescences borne in racemose clusters, and development of both pistillate and staminate inflorescences during the growing season prior to anthesis , with these fully exposed during winter. It includes the common A. rubra, A. incana, A. oblongifolia, and A. serrulata. Alnus subg. Alnobetula (represented in North America by three subspecies of A. viridis ) consists of shrubby species of cold-climate regions. In this group, the buds are nearly sessile and covered by several imbricate scales. Both staminate and pistillate catkins are formed the season before anthesis, but only the staminate ones are exposed during winter. The predominantly Asian Alnus subg. Clethropsis (Spach) Regel is represented in America by a single species, A. maritima, a small tree or large shrub of stream banks, marshes, and the shores of shallow lakes . Members of this group are unique in that they bloom in autumn rather than spring . They also differ from other native species in Alnus in having essentially naked buds, leaves with semicraspedodromous venation (i.e. , with the secondary veins branching and anastomosing with each other near the margin before reaching the teeth), and solitary pistillate inflorescences borne in the axils of foliage leaves. All of the alders associate symbiotically with species of the actinomycete Frankia, leading to the formation of nodules on the roots of the plants and the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen.[2]

Physical Description

Habitat

Typically found at an altitude of 0 to 4,936 meters (0 to 16,194 feet).[3]

Ecology: A widespread montane species. It is common in cloud forest and montane rainforest but much of its original habitat in the drier inter-Andean valleys has disappeared over the centuries. They coppice well and regenerate well.[4].

Biology

Growth

Culture: Space 20-30' apart.

Soil: Minimum pH: 4.6 • Maximum pH: 6.0

Sunlight: Sun Exposure: Full Sun .

Temperature: Cold Hardiness: 7a, 7b, 8a, 8b, 9a, 9b, 10a, 10b, 11. (map)

Taxonomy

Synonyms

Alnus jorullensis var. acuminata Kuntze • Alnus jorullensis var. acuminata (Kunth) Kuntze

Notes

Publishing author : Kunth

Similar Species

Members of the genus Alnus

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 28 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

A. acuminata (Alder) · A. acuminata glabrata (Mexican Alder) · A. cordata (Italian Alder) · A. fallacina (Alder) · A. glutinosa (Black Alder) · A. glutinosa glutinosa (European Black Alder) · A. glutinosa 'Imperialis' (Black Alder) · A. glutinosa 'Pyramidalis' (Black Alder) · A. hirsuta (Manchurian Alder) · A. incana (Gray Alder) · A. incana incana (Speckled Alder) · A. incana rugosa (Gray Alder) · A. incana tenuifolia (Gray Alder) · A. japonica (Japanese Alder) · A. maritima (Seaside Alder) · A. nepalensis (Indian Alder) · A. nitida (West Himalayan Alder) · A. oblongifolia (Arizona Alder) · A. rhombifolia (Alder) · A. rubra (Oregon Alder) · A. rubra f. pinnatisecta (Oregon Alder) · A. serrulata (Alder) · A. viridis (Green Alder) · A. viridis crispa (Green Alder) · A. viridis fruticosa (Green Alder) · A. viridis sinuata (Green Alder) · A. viridis viridis (European Green Alder) · A. x fallacina (Alder)

More Info

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Further Reading

• A global directory of tropical montane cloud forests. Draft WCMC url p. 147, p. 148.
• American forest trees, by Henry H. Gibson; ed. by Hu Maxwell. Chicago, Hardwood record, 1913. url , p. 11, p. 592.
• American forest trees; edited by Hu Maxwell. ChicagoHardwood Record1913 url , p. 592.
• An elementary course of botany: structural, physiological, and systematic / by Arthur Henfrey. London: John Van Voorst, 1878. url p. 689.
• Biologia centrali-americana; or, Contributions to the knowledge of the fauna and flora of Mexico and Central America. London, Pub. for the editors by R. H. Porter and Dulau & co., 1879-88. url , .
• Brigham Young University science bulletin. 10 1969 Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University, [1955-1976] url p. 20.
• Britton, N. L. (ed.). North American flora. [New York]New York Botanical Garden. url p. 680.
• Bulletin - United States National Museum. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, [etc.];1877-1971. url p. 147, p. 450, p. 49, p. 93, p. 94.
• Bulletin of the New York Botanical Garden. 4 1905-1907 Lancaster, Pa.: Published for the Garden by the New Era Printing Co., url p. 447.
• Carnegie Institution of Washington publication. Washington, Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1902- url , p. 31, p. 33, p. 35, p. 40, p. 42.
• Catalogue of the trees and shrubs in the arboretum and botanic garden at the Central Experimental Farm, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada by Wm. Saunders and W.T. Macoun. Ottawa: Govt. Print. Bureau, 1899. url .
• Check list of the forest trees of the United States: their names and ranges / by George B. Sudworth. Washington, D.C.: Dept. of Agriculture, Forestry Division, 1898. url p. 49.
• Cloud Forest Agenda. UNEP-WCMC Biodiversity Series 20 UNEP-WCMC url p. 21.
• Contribution to an evaluation of tree species using the new CITES Listing Criteria CITES url p. 148, p. 6.
• Contributions from the United States National Herbarium 19 1915 Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1890- url p. 164, p. 167, p. 168.
• Contributions to the paleobotany of Peru, Bolivia and Chile; five papers, by Edward W. Berry. Baltimore, The John Hopkins Press, 1922. url p. 212.
• Cyclopedia of American horticulture, comprising suggestions for cultivation of horticultural plants, descriptions of the species of fruits, vegetables, flowers and ornamental plants sold in the United States and Canada, together with geo by L.H. Bailey assisted by Wilhelm Miller, PH. D., associate editor, and many expert cultivators and botanists. Illustrated with nearly three thousand engravings and one hundred and forty-five full-pa New York, Doubleday, Page & Company, 1906. url p. 48.
• Flora Costaricensis / William Burger, editor. 40 1977 Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, 1977. url fig. 9b , p. 57, p. 58.
• Flora of Costa Rica. .. by Paul C. Standley. .. 18 1937 Chicago, 1937. url p. 373.
• Flora of New Mexico / by E.O. Wooton and Paul C. Standley. Washington: G.P.O., 1915. url p. 164.
• Flora of New Mexico. By E.O. Wooton and Paul C. Standley. WashingtonGovt. Print. Off.1915 url p. 164.
• Flora of Peru / by J. Francis Macbride; B.E. Dahlgren, editor. 13 1937 Chicago, U.S.A.: Field Museum of Natural History, [1937] url p. 267.
• Garden and forest; a journal of horticulture, landscape art and forestry. New York: The Garden and forest publishing co., 1888-97. url p. 163, p. 243, p. 273.
• Great Basin naturalist memoirs. 1992 [Provo, Utah]Brigham Young University, 1976-1992. url p. 1247, p. 499.
• Journal of ethnobiology. 3-5 1983-1985 Flagstaff, Ariz.: Center for Western Studies, 1981- url p. 36, p. 44.
• Mammals of the Mexican boundary of the United States: a descriptive catalogue of the species of mammals occurring in that region; with a general summary of the natural history, and a list of trees / Washington: Govt. Print. Off., 1907. url .
• Manual of the trees of North America (exclusive of Mexico) by Charles Sprague Sargent, with seven hundred and eighty-three illustrations from drawings by Charles Edward Faxon and Mary W. Gill. Boston and New York, Houghton Mifflin company, 1922. url p. 225, p. 225, p. 899, p. 899.
• North American trees: being descriptions and illustrations of the trees growing independently of cultivation in North America, north of Mexico and the West Indies / New York: H. Holt and Co., 1908. url .
• North American trees; being descriptions and illustrations of the trees growing independently of cultivation in North America, north of Mexico and the West Indies; with the assistance of John Adolph Shafer. New YorkHolt1908 url p. 259, p. 264.
• Novon a journal of botanical nomenclature from the Missouri Botanical Garden. 6 1996 St. Louis, MO: Missouri Botanical Garden, url p. 87.
• Pamphlets on silviculture. [1899- url p. 273, p. 273.
• Phytologia memoirs. Plainfield, N.J.: H.N. Moldenke and A.L. Moldenke, 1980- url p. 119, p. 81.
• Phytologia. Bronx Park, New York, H.A. Gleason and H.N. Moldenke, url p. 232.
• Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Boston: Metcalf and Co., 1846-1958 url p. 24, p. 25, p. 27, p. 441, p. 559, p. 609, p. 611, p. 612, p. 62.
• Select extra-tropical plants readily eligible for industrial culture or naturalisation with indications of their native countries and some of their uses / by Baron Ferd. von Mueller. Melbourne: R. S. Brain, govt. printer, 1895. url p. 33, p. 622, p. 624, p. 626.
• The Conservation Atlas of Tropical Forests: the Americas IUCN url p. 250.
• The Great Basin naturalist. 26 1966 Provo, Utah: M.L. Bean Life Science Museum, Brigham Young University, 1939-1999. url wood, page 17.
• The North American sylva, or, A description of the forest trees of the United States, Canada, and Nova Scotia, not described in the work of F. Andrew Michaux and containing all the forest trees discovered in the Rocky Mountains, the territory of Oregon, down to the shores of the Pacific, and into the confines of California, as well as in various parts of t Philadelphia: Wm. Rutter, ca. 1865 url .
• The Plant world. Baltimore [etc.]Plant World Association [etc.] url p. 273.
• The University of Kansas science bulletin. 33 1949 [Lawrence]: University of Kansas, 1902-1996. url p. 163.
• The bogs and bog flora of the Huron River Valley. .. By Edgar Nelson Transeau. [Chicago]The University of Chicago Press[1906] url p. 226, p. 227, p. 231.
• The conservation and sustainable use of the crop genetic resources of Central America. A Darwin initiative funded project. Report on phase 1 WCMC url p. 36, p. 37.
• The flora of British India /By J. D. Hooker assisted by various botanists. Published under the authority of the secretary of state for India in council. London: L. Reeve, 1875-97. url p. 348.
• The geography of plants / by M. E. Hardy. Oxford: Clarendon press, 1920. url p. 321, p. 321.
• The silva of North America a description of the tree which grow naturally in North America exclusive of Mexico / by Charles Sprague Sargent; illustrated with figures and analyses drawn from nature by Charles Edward Faxon. Boston;Houghton, Mifflin, 1902 url .
• The silva of North America: a description of the trees which grow naturally in North America exclusive of Mexico /by Charles Sprague Sargent. .. illustrated with figures and analyses drawn from nature by Charles Edward Faxon. .. 14 1902 Boston, New York: Houghton, Mifflin and company, 1891-1902. url p. 111, p. 185, p. 71, p. 79, p. 80, tab. CDLVII, p. v.
• The standard cyclopedia of horticulture; a discussion, for the amateur, and the professional and commercial grower, of the kinds, characteristics and methods of cultivation of the species of plants grown in the regions of the United States a Illustrated with colored plates, four thousand engravings in the text, and ninety-six full-page cuts. New York, Macmillan, 1919 [c1914] url p. 253.
• The vegetation of a desert mountain range as conditioned by climatic factors, Washington, D. C., Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1915. url , , , , , .
• Transactions of the Scottish Arboricultural Society. Edinburgh: The Society, -1887. url p. 422.
• Trees and shrubs of Mexico / By Paul C. Standley. Washington, Govt. Print. Off., 1920-1926. url p. 167, p. 168.
• Li Pei-chun & Cheng Sze-hsu. 1979. Betulaceae. In: Kuang Ko-zen & Li Pei-chun, eds., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 21: 44-137.
• Furlow, J. J. 1979. The systematics of the American species of Alnus (Betulaceae). Rhodora 81: 1--121, 151--248.
• Hylander, N. 1957. On cut-leaved and small-leaved forms of Alnus glutinosa and A. incana. Svensk Bot. Tidskr. 51: 437--453.
• Murai, S. 1964. Phytotaxonomical and geobotanical studies on gen. Alnus in Japan (III). Taxonomy of whole world species and distribution of each sect. Bull. Gov. Forest Exp. Sta. 171: 1--107.
• Trappe, J. M., J. F. Franklin, R. F. Tarrant, and G. M. Hansen, eds. 1968. Biology of Alder.... Portland.

Notes

Contributors

• Bisby, F.A., Y.R. Roskov, M.A. Ruggiero, T.M. Orrell, L.E. Paglinawan, P.W. Brewer, N. Bailly, J. van Hertum, eds (2007). Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life: 2007 Annual Checklist. Species 2000: Reading, U.K.
• Brands, S.J. (comp.) 1989-2007. Systema Naturae 2000. The Taxonomicon. Universal Taxonomic Services, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Accessed March 28, 2007.
• Brands, S.J. (comp.) 1989-present. The Taxonomicon. Universal Taxonomic Services, Zwaag, The Netherlands. Accessed January 10, 2012.
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Accessed September 11, 2007. http://www.gbif.org Mediated distribution data from 2 providers.
• IUCN 2012. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.2. . Downloaded on January 28, 2012.
• Ruggiero M., Gordon D., Bailly N., Kirk P., Nicolson D. (2011). The Catalogue of Life Taxonomic Classification, Edition 2, Part A. In: Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life: 2011 Annual Checklist (Bisby F.A., Roskov Y.R., Orrell T.M., Nicolson D., Paglinawan L.E., Bailly N., Kirk P.M., Bourgoin T., Baillargeon G., Ouvrard D., eds). DVD; Species 2000: Reading, UK.
• The International Plant Names Index. Accessed Dec 27, 2011.
• USDA, ARS, National Genetic Resources Program. Germplasm Resources Information Network - (GRIN) [Online Database]. National Germplasm Resources Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland. URL (April 26, 2008)
• World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. Release date: November 27, 2009
• World Conservation Monitoring Centre 1998. Alnus acuminata. In: IUCN 2011. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.2. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloadedon 30January2012.

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal November 18, 2007:

• Biologiezentrum der Oberoesterreichischen Landesmuseen, Biologiezentrum Linz
• Comisión nacional para el conocimiento y uso de la biodiversidad, Herbario del Instituto de Ecología, A.C., México
• Herbarium of the University of Aarhus, The AAU Herbarium Database
• Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad
• , Biodiversidad de Costa Rica
• International Plant Genetic Resources Institute(IPGRI), The System-wide Information Network for Genetic Resources
• Missouri Botanical Garden, Missouri Botanical Garden

Identifiers

• Biodiversity Heritage Library NamebankID: 3453057
• Catalogue of Life Accepted Name Code: Kew-6246
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility Taxonkey: 14238605
• Globally Unique Identifier: urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:294882-1
• GRIN Nomen Number: 401974
• International Plant Names Index (IPNI) ID: 294882-1
• IUCN ID: 189957
• Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 981650

Footnotes

1. Pei-chun Li & Alexei K. Skvortsov "Betulaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 4 Page 286. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
2. "Alnus". in Flora of North America Vol. 3. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
3. Mean = 1,822.240 meters (5,978.478 feet), Standard Deviation = 1,363.260 based on 232 observations. Altitude information for each observation from British Oceanographic Data Centre. [back]
4. World Conservation Monitoring Centre 1998. Alnus acuminata. In: IUCN 2011. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.2. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 30 January 2012. [back]

©2004-2012 David Stang. All rights reserved.