What are the characteristics of alder?
Alder is evenly textured, with a subdued grain pattern, and has a moderate weight and hardness. Because of its uniform, small pore structure and consistency of color, alder is a preferred wood for finishing.
Is alder a hard or soft wood?
Alder is a relatively soft hardwood of medium density that has low bending strength, shock resistance, and stiffness. Available in dimension stock and lumber. Furniture, kitchen cabinets, doors, shutters, moulding, panel stock, turnings, carvings, and kitchen utensils.
What are the characteristics of red alder?
They are oval-shaped, with pointed tips, and coarsely toothed edges that tend to curl under. The hair-covered veins form a ladder-like pattern. Leaves stay green until they drop off. The flowers occur as either male or female clusters.
What is red alder good for?
Wood and fiber: Red alder wood is used in the production of wooden products such as food dishes, furniture, sashes, doors, millwork, cabinets, paneling and brush handles. It is also used in fiber-based products such as tissue and writing paper. In Washington and Oregon, it was largely used for smoking salmon.
Is red alder poisonous?
Allergies/Toxicity: Although severe reactions are quite uncommon, Alder in the Alnus genus has been reported to cause eye, skin, and respiratory irritation. See the articles Wood Allergies and Toxicity and Wood Dust Safety for more information.
Is red alder good for woodworking?
Uses in woodworking
Red alder makes excellent core stock for plywood because of its stability and good gluing properties. Also, it's commercially used on the West Coast for production turnings, cabinets, paneling, doors, millwork, unfinished furniture (especially chairs) and waterbed frames.May 3, 2017
Do deer eat red alder?
Red Alder is fast growing, up to 40-80 feet, invasive and ideal for ecological restoration. Finches eat the seeds of red alder. Deer and elk eat the leaves, twigs and buds of young trees. Stands of red alder are favorable habitat for deer, providing shade in summer and early fall.
What does red alder look like?
Diagnostic Characters: Red Alder has thin, gray bark often with patches of white lichens. Because of the whitish appearance of the bark, it is often confused with Paper Birch. Its most distinguishing feature is its wavy, toothed leaves with revolute margins (edges that are slightly rolled under).Jun 18, 2014
What type of tree is red alder?
Alnus rubra (red alder) is a deciduous broadleaf tree in the Betulaceae (Birch) family native to western North America. In California it is found primarily along the coast from San Luis Obispo County northward. In southern california Alnus rhombifolia is the more commonly found alder.
What is a red alder tree?
Red alder is a deciduous tree in the Betulaceae (birch) family. It is native to the western coast of North America from Alaska down to California. This is one of the larger alders and grows 65-98 feet tall. It gets its name from the orange/red underbark that was used to make dye by Native Americans.
What type of tree is an alder?
alder, (genus Alnus), genus of about 30 species of ornamental shrubs and trees in the birch family (Betulaceae). Alders are distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere and in parts of western South America on cool wet sites at elevations up to 2,500 metres (8,200 feet).