ALDERS, BIRCH AND PUSSY WILLOWS ON OLD SAN ROAD

A CHILL, DREARY MONDAY MORNING

TAG ALDER AND PAPER BIRCH GROWING TOGETHER,,

THE TAG ALDER BRANCHES HAVE LAST YEAR'S FEMALE "CONES" STILL ATTACHED..

...AND PENDULOUS MALE CATKINS, FILLED WITH POLLEN

PUSSY WILLOW FLOWERS ARE BASICALLY "ON HOLD"

Monday,  7:30 AM.  31 degrees F at the Ferry Dock, 28 on the back porch.  The wind is again very light and variable, the humidity has increased to 79%, and the barometer is beginning to rise, now at 30.19".  It is a chill, dreary Monday morning.
   I took Buddy out on Old San Road yesterday, where he can run to his heart's content.  There are a lot of young paper birch trees, Betula papyrifera, growing along the road, intertwined with tag alder, Alnus rugosa (referred to by some authorities as Alnus incana subspecies rugosa). The young trunks and branches of both are shiny reddish-brown and have very obvious lenticels, so are easily confused, at least until a birch trunk becomes old enough to begin to turn paper-white.
   The alders, however, bear last year's empty female cones and this year's pollen filled male catkins, even on very young trees, and that makes the two species easy to tell apart at this time of year.
   Meanwhile, the flowers of the native pussy willow, Salix discolor, are virtually "on hold," waiting for warmer weather to mature further.