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Characteristics
 Family-
Betulaceae--The Birch Family
- Origin
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Native NC
- Plant Description
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Deciduous shrub - tree 15 to 20 feet tall, leaves alternate, simple, elliptical in shape with finely toothed margins; flowers appearing in late winter before the leaves, of separate sexes, male flowers in long, drooping yellowish catkins, female flowers tiny, red, at tips of branches; fruits dark, cone like.
- Ornamental Characteristics
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Attractive with drooping, yellow flower clusters in late winter.
- Landscape Use
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Useful in very wet areas where little else will grow, forms a thick, shrubby screen.
- Horticultural Cultivars
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None
- Availability/Propagation
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Not found in nurseries, dig from the wild (with permission)
- Culture
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Plant in moist or wet areas in partial shade.
- Coastal Ecology
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Tag alder is a Facultative Wetland species. It is found at the edges of pocosins and along slow moving creeks. It is not found on the sandy dunes nor is it tolerant of salt spray. It is a deciduous shrub to small tree, with stalked dormant leaf buds. The clustered male flowers are yellow, dangling structures which liberate yellow pollen. The female flowers are clusters of small, bright red structures at the tip of the twigs which mature in the fall to reddish, conelike structures that liberate the seeds, then persist into the following growing season as blackish cones which have already liberated their seeds. The tiny green catkins at the tip of the stem are the preformed male flowers, which will mature early the following spring.
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