Speckled Alder - Alnus incana

Alnus incana is commonly known as Speckled, Gray, or Tag Alder, and is a perennial shrub native to Michigan and the Upper Peninsula. It is a denizen of sunny bogs, shorelines, riverbanks, and wet areas in fields and forest edges. It spreads with vigor in favorable habitats by suckering, layering, and seed. It does fine in medium moisture soil, including clay. Mature height is 10 to 25 feet.
 
This is not inherently a polite landscaping shrub, but it can be pruned into a tree form and its spread can be controlled by mowing. Its tolerance for a wide range of soil conditions, rapid growth, and ability to fix nitrogen make it a useful habitat plant. The vigorous roots and suckering habit make it useful for erosion control. According to a USDA NRCS Plant Guide, it is even used to remediate old mining sites.
 
Thickets provide browse for wildlife, a welcome check on its spread. It is a fast-growing wood source for beaver, if that is an issue where you live. The dense cover and food source provided by its seeds, catkins, and buds makes them ideal nesting and feeding sites for many songbirds, woodcock, and grouse. I had to change my weedy opinion of Speckled Alder when I realized it was the favorite nesting site of our Indigo Buntings, and then discovered American Woodcock using our patch. Many a late night making garden kits at the greenhouse I have listened to their weird enchanting calls - a short buzzing burst that for years I mistook for tree frogs (thanks, Merlin bird ID app!).
 
Speckled Alder is the host plant for many inscets, butterflies, and moths, including the Green Comma, Walnut Sphinx, Mourning Cloak, Red-spotted Admiral, Fringed Looper, Funerary Dagger Moth, Luna Moth, Tiger Swallowtail, and others.
 
The same USDA Plant Guide (https://plants.sc.egov.usda.gov/DocumentLibrary/plantguide/pdf/pg_alinr.pdf) says this of its ethnobotanic background: "Native Americans used speckled alder to treat anemia, as an emetic, a compress or wash for sore eyes, and a diaphoretic, for internal bleeding, urinary problems, sprains, bruises or backaches, itches, flux, and piles, to cure saddle gall in horses. When mixed with powdered bumblebees [!], it was used as an aid for difficult labor."
 
We often have these in 4" pots  in the seedling stage, up to about 6". Larger plants are potted up to gallon containers and are typically 12 to 30 inches tall. Occasionaly plug flats are available if we have an abundance of seedlings.