looduskalender.ee

Grey alder

 

 

 ... or do we only want to see it so.

 

The male catkins are long and mostly hang by three or five together. For predicting the harvest in autumn their abundance in spring was kept in mind, since they remind a little of corn ears. Hunger catkins were the black female catkins, spilled empty of seeds during winter. They resemble cones slightly. Their abundance was associated with crop failures in the old days. During the grey alder flowering time in March-April the young female catkins are small, upright and reddish-brown, eight to ten together. The grey alder flowers up to a couple of weeks earlier than black alder.