Alnus viridis (Vill.) Lam.
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Authority
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.
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Family
Betulaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Tall colonial shrub; younger parts ± glutinous; winter buds virtually sessile, acuminate, with ca 5 imbricate scales; lf-bearing stems usually with both long shoots and short spurs, the latter bearing the lvs (unique among our spp. in this regard, the other spp. usually not forming both long and short shoots); lvs glutinous, especially beneath and when young, broadly elliptic to ovate, broadly obtuse to rounded or subcordate at base, with mostly 6–9 main veins on each side, green and shiny (not glaucous) beneath, sometimes sparsely velvety-rusty, finely and sharply toothed, or almost laciniate; catkins appearing with the lvs, the pistillate ones in infls with 2–3 lvs at the base, at maturity 1–1.5(–2) cm, evidently slender-pedunculate; filaments 0.5–1 mm; fr 2–3 mm, the body only 1–2 mm wide and surrounded by a broad, pale membranous wing; 2n=28. Bogs, shores, and cold woods; nearly circumboreal, in Am. s. to Mass., N.Y., Wis., Minn., Ida., and Calif., and at disjunct stations in Pa. and on Roan Mt. (N.C.–Tenn.). Boreal Amer. and e. Amer. pls, as here described, are var. crispa (Michx.) House (A. alnobetula; A. crispa; A. mollis, the pubescent extreme)
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Common Names
green alder, mountain alder