4/11/11 ALDERS IN BLOOM

TAG ALDER IN BLOOM

MALE CATKINS FULL OF POLLEN

TINY FEMALE CONES

Monday, 7:30 AM.  44 degrees, wind variable but mostly west.  The sky is mostly overcast but the barometer predicts sunshine.
    The tag alders ( Alnus incana ) are blooming, the male catkins hanging pendulously, full of pollen, from the ends of branches, the tiny purple cone-like flowers just above them.   One of he first things to bloom in spring, The "tag alder" is a common , large shrub of southern Canada and the northern US, west to Nebraska.  It grows in swamps and along stream banks and lakeshores.