The Colonizer

Alnus Rubra, a photo by i like bees on Flickr.
The ubiquitous Red Alder.  Colonizer of stream banks, fixer of nitrogen (with a little help from Frankia alni) and favorite of Olympic Peninsula beavers.  Seldom do we get to see the rootstock of this plant so clearly, ripped from the banks of some stream or river, cleansed and polished by the waves and rocks of the ocean, and deposited here, almost as if dissected, upon the western shore of the continent.

I love the colors here:  reddish and glowing, the color of the wood suggesting the name... and yet this plant is named not for the hue of the wood, but rather the beautiful red cast of the branch tips from a distance when they bear their winter catkins.  Alder attains sizes that are not great, and lives a life short by contrast with most of our other trees.  Yet, like all the other components of our native ecosystem, this tree plays a key (and often beautiful) place in the wild.

Red Alder color cast:  Skokomish Valley Red Alder

Red Alder, covered in ice:  Quinault Valley Icy Alder