Alnus incana
 
Speckled Alder

Mature Pistillate Catkin

Duck Mountain Provincial Park
14-May-2015

Each scale usually subtends two female flowers.  The tips of the ovaries and their two apical styles can be seen poking out behind the scales in this photo.  Note that Flora of Alberta calls this species A. tenuifolia.

bullet

Incana: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora and Flora of Alberta leading to this species. 
bullet

tall shrub or small tree; NOT [shrubs]

bullet

leaves dull; NOT [leaves shining]

bullet

leaf buds stipitate; NOT [leaf buds sessile]

bullet

leaf buds covered by 2 or 3 scales of nearly equal length; NOT [leaf buds covered by imbricate scales of unequal length]

bullet

flowers developed before the leaves in early spring; NOT [flowers developed with the leaves on the twigs of the current season]

bullet

nutlet wingless, merely margined; NOT [nutlet broadly wing-margined, the body comprising less than half the width]

 

bullet

Alnus: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora and Flora of Alberta leading to this genus. 
bullet

staminate flowers usually three in the axils of the catkin bracts; NOT [staminate flowers solitary in the axils of the catkin bracts]

bullet

stamens 4; NOT [stamens 2]

bullet

pistillate catkin elongated; NOT [pistillate flowers few in a short, bud-like catkin]

bullet

bracts of pistillate catkins becoming thick and woody; NOT [bracts of pistillate catkins thin, 3-lobed]

bullet

bracts of pistillate catkins persistent; NOT [bracts of pistillate catkins deciduous]

bullet

fruit a nutlet in the axil of a catkin bract; NOT [fruit a nut enclosed in a leafy, hispid involucre with a long beak]

bullet

nutlets narrow-winged or with leathery margins; NOT [nutlets mostly broadly winged], NOT [nuts wingless]

 

bullet

Betulaceae: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora  leading to this family. 
bullet

shrubs or trees; NOT [herbs]

bullet

flowers with only one floral ring, with sepals but not petals

bullet

male flowers, at least, in catkins or aments; NOT [flowers not in catkins or aments]

bullet

styles 2; NOT [styles 3]

bullet

fruit NOT an acorn

bullet

seeds WITHOUT a tuft of hairs