Alnus maritima

Alnus maritima, the seaside alder or brook alder, is a species of shrub or small tree in the family Betulaceae.[1] Alnus maritima is endemic to the United States, and is found naturally in three disjunct populations in Oklahoma, Georgia, and in Maryland and Delaware on the Delmarva Peninsula.[2]

"Brook Alder" redirects here. For other uses, see Alderbrook (disambiguation).

Alnus maritima
Leaves and catkins
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Fagales
Family: Betulaceae
Genus: Alnus
Subgenus: Alnus subg. Clethropsis
Species:
A. maritima
Binomial name
Alnus maritima
Natural range of Alnus maritima

Alnus maritima is the only autumn-blooming member of the genus Alnus native to North America. All other North American alders bloom in the spring. The autumn-blooming phenology is a characteristic that Alnus maritima shares with two old-world Alnus species, Alnus nitida and Alnus nepalensis, which are endemic to southeast Asia. This profound similarity in their timing of anthesis has led to their classification as the only three members in the subgenus Clethropsis.[3]

Taxonomy

In 2002, the three populations were recognized as subspecies and given the names Alnus maritima subsp. oklahomensis, Alnus maritima subsp. georgiensis, and Alnus maritima subsp. maritima, respectively.[3] While some believe that subspecies maritima is the oldest of the three subspecies and that the other two disjunct populations resulted from some form of long distance dispersal, evidence from morphometric and phylogeographic studies indicates that the Oklahoma population (subsp. oklahomensis) is in fact the most ancestral and that the species probably had a wide, continuous distribution across the United States in the past.[3][4]

References
  1. Stritch, L.; Roy, S.; Shaw, K.; Wilson, B. & Rivers, M.C. (2016). "Alnus maritima". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016: e.T34053A2841625. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T34053A2841625.en.
  2. Alnus maritima - Seaside alder
  3. Schrader, J.A. and W.R. Graves. 2002. Infraspecific systematics of Alnus maritima (Betulaceae) from three widely disjunct provenances. Castanea 67: 380–401.
  4. Schrader, J.A. and W.R. Graves. 2004. Systematics of Alnus maritima (seaside alder) resolved by ISSR polymorphisms and morphological characters. J. Am. Soc. Hort. Sci. 129: 231–236.
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