Alder

The bark is the part herbalists and craftspeople used most. A decoction of it bathed swellings and sore, inflamed throats, and was once credited with curing ague. Rich in tannin, it served tanners and dyers, giving black with iron salts and reddish, yellow or brown shades otherwise. Kynes records an Austrian belief that a love potion could be undone by drinking wine boiled with a piece of the bark.

Culpeper prescribes the leaves, boiled or distilled into a water, for burns and inflammations, and fresh leaves laid on swellings; travellers put them under feet chafed by walking. Leaves gathered with the dew still on them were carried into a room to collect its fleas, and Grieve adds that Alpine peasants were covered with bags of heated leaves to ease rheumatism.

Germanic peoples burned alder wood in sacred fires, above all at sacrifices, and Kynes suggests burning a couple of chips before a ritual, a magical working or a divination session to strengthen it; wood chips and charcoal are both sold. The soft timber lasts well under water, so it was used for piles and foundations, and it is the traditional fuel for smoking fish.