§1 Plant
Alnus incana (L.) Moench
vernacular gray alder — species · Betulaceae
§2Habit & range
Habit and range
- Growth habit
- Shrub, Tree
- Duration
- Perennial
- Group
- Dicot
- Family
- Betulaceae Gray
- Genus
- Alnus
§2a
Native status, by region
- AK Alaska Native
- CAN Canada Native
- L48 Lower 48 States Native
- SPM St. Pierre & Miquelon Native
§2b
County-level range
· 207 counties across 13 states/territories§3Cultivation specs · USDA
Recorded by the USDA Plant Materials Program.
§3a
Tolerances
- Drought
- Low
- Shade
- Medium
- Moisture use
- High
- Fire
- High
- Salinity
- None
- Anaerobic
- High
- CaCO₃
- Low
- Hedging
- None
§3b
Climate & soil
- Cold tolerance
- -33 °F minimum
- Frost-free days
- 100 min.
- Precipitation
- 32–60 in/yr
- pH range
- 5–7
- Root depth
- 24 in min.
- Fertility need
- Medium
- Soil texture
- coarse, medium, fine
§3c
Form & growth
- Growth form
- Thicket Forming
- Growth rate
- Rapid
- Lifespan
- Short
- Mature height
- 25 ft
- Height @ 20 y
- 15 ft
- Foliage texture
- Coarse
- Foliage colour
- Green
- Porosity (summer)
- Moderate
- Porosity (winter)
- Porous
- Fruit colour
- Brown
- Fire resistant
- No
- N fixation
- Medium
- Toxicity
- None
§3d
Reproduction
- Bloom period
- Spring
- Seed abundance
- Low
- Seed begins
- Spring
- Seed ends
- Summer
- Spread rate
- Slow
- Stratify
- Yes
- Seeds / lb
- 1,084,250
- Propagation
- seed, bare root, container
§3e
Use & availability
- Commercial availability
- Routinely Available
- Nursery stock
- No
- Browse palatability
- Medium
- Graze palatability
- Low
- Palatable, human
- No
- Protein potential
- Low
- Lumber
- No
- Fuelwood
- Medium
- Christmas tree
- No
§4Counties, by state
Recorded in 207 counties across 13 states/territories.
Alaska view state ↗ 16 N ▾
- Anchorage 02020
- Bethel 02050
- Bristol Bay 02060
- Chugach 02063
- Copper River 02066
- Dillingham 02070
- Fairbanks North Star 02090
- Haines 02100
- Juneau 02110
- Kenai Peninsula 02122
- Lake and Peninsula 02164
- Matanuska-Susitna 02170
- Nome 02180
- Northwest Arctic 02188
- Southeast Fairbanks 02240
- Yukon-Koyukuk 02290
Arizona view state ↗ 8 N ▾
Maine view state ↗ 16 N ▾
Massachusetts view state ↗ 14 N ▾
Montana view state ↗ 12 N ▾
New Hampshire view state ↗ 10 N ▾
New Jersey view state ↗ 12 N ▾
New York view state ↗ 44 N ▾
- Albany 36001
- Allegany 36003
- Bronx 36005
- Cattaraugus 36009
- Cayuga 36011
- Chautauqua 36013
- Clinton 36019
- Columbia 36021
- Delaware 36025
- Erie 36029
- Essex 36031
- Franklin 36033
- Greene 36039
- Hamilton 36041
- Herkimer 36043
- Jefferson 36045
- Kings 36047
- Lewis 36049
- Madison 36053
- Monroe 36055
- Nassau 36059
- New York 36061
- Oneida 36065
- Ontario 36069
- Orange 36071
- Oswego 36075
- Putnam 36079
- Queens 36081
- Rensselaer 36083
- Richmond 36085
- Rockland 36087
- Saratoga 36091
- Schenectady 36093
- St. Lawrence 36089
- Suffolk 36103
- Sullivan 36105
- Tioga 36107
- Tompkins 36109
- Ulster 36111
- Warren 36113
- Washington 36115
- Wayne 36117
- Westchester 36119
- Yates 36123
Pennsylvania view state ↗ 49 N ▾
- Armstrong 42005
- Beaver 42007
- Bedford 42009
- Berks 42011
- Blair 42013
- Bradford 42015
- Butler 42019
- Cambria 42021
- Cameron 42023
- Carbon 42025
- Centre 42027
- Clarion 42031
- Clearfield 42033
- Clinton 42035
- Columbia 42037
- Crawford 42039
- Cumberland 42041
- Dauphin 42043
- Elk 42047
- Erie 42049
- Fayette 42051
- Forest 42053
- Franklin 42055
- Huntingdon 42061
- Jefferson 42065
- Lackawanna 42069
- Lawrence 42073
- Lebanon 42075
- Lehigh 42077
- Luzerne 42079
- Lycoming 42081
- McKean 42083
- Mercer 42085
- Mifflin 42087
- Monroe 42089
- Montour 42093
- Northampton 42095
- Perry 42099
- Pike 42103
- Potter 42105
- Schuylkill 42107
- Snyder 42109
- Somerset 42111
- Sullivan 42113
- Susquehanna 42115
- Tioga 42117
- Venango 42121
- Warren 42123
- Wayne 42127
Rhode Island view state ↗ 3 N ▾
Vermont view state ↗ 13 N ▾
Virginia view state ↗ 4 N ▾
West Virginia view state ↗ 6 N ▾
§5Sources & provenance
USDA PLANTS
Symbol, taxonomy, distribution, cultivation specs, native status. Public domain.
plants.usda.gov/ALIN2 ↗GBIF Backbone
Canonical taxonomic identity, synonym resolution, cross-refs. CC0.
gbif.org/species/9148577 ↗Record version
Cached and built locally. Source version on this record:
usda-plants-mt-2026-05-26
fetched 2026-05-26T03:31:52Z