Showing posts with label Trees for the Bees Alder. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Trees for the Bees Alder. Show all posts

Thursday, April 3, 2014

Trees for the Bees Alder

by Liliana Usvat
Blog 169-365

There is a lot that we can do, as landowners and gardeners, to encourage bees. The successful beekeeper has to be something of a botanist as well. In addition to making beekeeping more interesting, it's useful to know where and when, and on what, your bees are foraging. There are flowering plants that are attractive to bees and are suitable for a formal garden. There are trees that bees love that may be suitable for a larger garden. You could also set aside an area of your land for a 'wild' garden' or just neglect hedge bottoms so that wild forage can prosper. After all, a weed is only a plant that is not in the place you wanted it. These are the plants that bees really like:-
  • Alder. This tree produces masses of pollen very early in the year


The Alder (Alnus) is the common name for a group of flowering trees and shrubs belonging to the Birch family. This interesting wind pollinated tree can take in nitrogen from the air and therefore it will improve the fertility of the soil it is growing in. The Alder provides a wonderful supply of early pollen for bees. The male catkins are long and slender with the shorter darker female catkins growing on the same tree. 


Alder is the common name of a genus of flowering plants (Alnus) belonging to the birch family Betulaceae. The genus comprises about 30 species of monoecious trees and shrubs, a few reaching a large size, distributed throughout the north temperate zone.


Alder leaves and sometimes catkins are used as food by numerous butterflies and moths.
A. glutinosa and A. viridis are classed as environmental weeds in New Zealand.


Alder is particularly noted for its important symbiotic relationship with Frankia alni, an actinomycete, filamentous, nitrogen-fixing bacterium. This bacterium is found in root nodules, which may be as large as a human fist, with many small lobes, and light brown in colour. The bacterium absorbs nitrogen from the air and makes it available to the tree. Alder, in turn, provides the bacterium with sugars, which it produces through photosynthesis.

 Good for Reforestation

As a result of this mutually beneficial relationship, alder improves the fertility of the soil where it grows, and as a pioneer species, it helps provide additional nitrogen for the successional species which follow.

Species

Alder (Alnus glutinosa) is the only native alder in Britain and is also found throughout Europe as far as Siberia. It thrives in damp, cool areas such as marshes.


Medicinal Uses


Alder’s medicinal use has ancient origins. In 1640 Parkinson wrote that the ‘leaves and bark are cooling and drying. Fresh leaves laid on tumors will dissolve them.” In a 1973 study of the properties of Alnus oregona reported in the Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, scientists verified that the stem–bark of this species contains lupeol and betulin, compounds that suppress tumor activity.
 
Alder leaves and dried inner bark are bitter; they act on the mucous membranes of the mouth and stomach to stimulate digestion. (See Caution, following). 

Alder decoctions are a good camping remedy for stomach ache. In addition, they are astringent and hemostatic, tightening tissues, stopping discharges, and reducing inflammation. 

Strong alder decoctions can be sipped in emergencies for internal bleeding, when no doctor is available (though I’d prefer shepherd’s purse or yarrow it present). Some western Indian tribes used to inject alder infusions into the anus for bleeding piles.

Alder’s tonic properties make it helpful for strengthening and toning the whole system. For a more palatable tonic tea, blend with nettle leaves, dandelion, and devil’s club roots.

Use of alder in Alaska is widespread. Lillian Elvsaas says that when growing up in Port Graham she was given ‘alder berry’ tea for diarrhea. 

This was prepared by boiling 3 or 4 of the green immature female fruits and taking 2 to 3 tablespoons of the decoction a few times a day. A St. Marys resident recommended a similar brew for tuberculosis. In the Kobuk River area, Eskimos apply alder leaves poultices for insect stings and bites.

For a soothing bath for children with measles or adults with rheumatism, prepare alder vinegar bath additive. Follow procedures for Raspberry Vinegar recipe, but substitute one pound bark. Add 1/4 cup (or more if desired) alder vinegar to the bath water.

Red alder, Alnus rubra. Alder bark, leaves, and cones are medicinal. Alder has multiple uses, all highly valuable.

It’s detoxifying, both as a blood purifier and a lymphatic cleanser. It’s also astringent and good for supporting absorption of nutrients in the small intestine, according to herbalist Michael Moore. Alder is also used internally as a remedy for tuberculosis and sore throat; externally as a wash for skin infections.

Use  alder with against antibiotic-resistant staph infections and externally infused into oils for pain relief. She says the catkins and bark are the most potent parts for pain-relieving. Herbalists from the nineteenth century write about using it for chronic skin infections of various kinds.
Alder bark

A tincture after drying the plant matter first, using one part plants to five parts menstruum with 50% alcohol. Other sources write about tincturing the fresh bark in a 1:2 ratio with 50% alcohol. You could also make a decoction, which is like a tea except you bring the plant parts to a boil and in the water and then simmer them for 15 minutes or so. (Decoctions are used for woody plant parts such as bark and roots.)

Alder is in the birch family. You can find alder trees across the country in forests near water. Red alder in particular lives on the West Coast from coastal Alaska to southern California. It prefers disturbed habitat.

Look for a deciduous tree with smooth bark that’s often mottled with white patches of lichen. The leaves are alternate, toothed, and the edges are curled under the underside, which is hairy.

It’s a pretty straight vertically growing tree, not curvy like dogwood or even cedar occasionally can be.
Alder catkins and cones

Bonus trivia: Alder heals the land too. It’s nitrogen-fixing for the soil. And you can use the bark to make an orange-red dye.