Entry From
Flora of North America, Vol 3,
Names
Alnus rubra Bongard [family BETULACEAE], Mém. Acad. Sci. St.-Pétersbourg, Sér., 6, Sci. Math. 2: 162. 1833
Alnus oregona Nuttall [family BETULACEAE]
Alnus rubra var. pinnatisecta Starker [family BETULACEAE]
Discussion
Alnus rubra is the largest alder in North America north of Mexico; it often forms extensive stands along streams and on low-lying flood plains in the Pacific Northwest. The strongly revolute margins of its leaf blades make it easily distinguished from all of the other alders in the flora. It is an important commercial tree; the wood is used to make inexpensive furniture, small wooden items, and paper pulp.
Native Americans used various parts of plants of Alnus rubra medicinally as a purgative, an emetic, for aching bones, headaches, coughs, biliousness, stomach problems, scrofula sores, tuberculosis, asthma, and eczema, and as a general panacea (D. E. Moerman 1986).