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

	tall shrub or small tree; NOT [shrubs]
	leaves dull; NOT [leaves shining]
	leaf buds stipitate; NOT [leaf buds sessile]
	leaf buds covered by 2 or 3 scales of nearly equal length; NOT [leaf buds covered by imbricate scales of unequal length]
	flowers developed before the leaves in early spring; NOT [flowers developed with the leaves on the twigs of the current season]
	nutlet wingless, merely margined; NOT [nutlet broadly wing-margined, the body comprising less than half the width]

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

	staminate flowers usually three in the axils of the catkin bracts; NOT [staminate flowers solitary in the axils of the catkin bracts]
	stamens 4; NOT [stamens 2]
	pistillate catkin elongated; NOT [pistillate flowers few in a short, bud-like catkin]
	bracts of pistillate catkins becoming thick and woody; NOT [bracts of pistillate catkins thin, 3-lobed]
	bracts of pistillate catkins persistent; NOT [bracts of pistillate catkins deciduous]
	fruit a nutlet in the axil of a catkin bract; NOT [fruit a nut enclosed in a leafy, hispid involucre with a long beak]
	nutlets narrow-winged or with leathery margins; NOT [nutlets mostly broadly winged], NOT [nuts wingless]

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

	shrubs or trees; NOT [herbs]
	flowers with only one floral ring, with sepals but not petals
	male flowers, at least, in catkins or aments; NOT [flowers not in catkins or aments]
	styles 2; NOT [styles 3]
	fruit NOT an acorn
	seeds WITHOUT a tuft of hairs