In message
Mike Lyle wrote:

On Sat, 05 Nov 2011 10:02:46 GMT, Michael Bell
wrote:

I am trying to develop alder as a grain crop. One of the things I want
is bigger seeds.

Thinking I might find something different I went and looked at Bolam
Lake (Northumberland) and indeed I found something different; the
seeds were the smallest I have ever seen. Why should this be? Where
can I find the opposite, big seeds?

Bolam lake is inland. Might I find bigger nearer the coast? Higher?
Lower? North? South?

But here is another way of looking at it. Bolam lake is an artificial
lake, no natural streams run into it, probably a design feature to
avoid silting. Alders typically spread by the seeds floating
downstream, that means that alder seeds can only have blown in, giving
rise the trees bearing small I find now.

So, how do tree seeds normally spread? In the case of hazel, oak, etc,
obviously birds and squirrels, and they are the right size to be
attractive to these creatures. Alder seeds seem too small.

I stumbled accidentally on a circumstance which selected for small
seeds. Can anybody think of a circumstance which selects for big alder
seeds?

Not that it answers your question, but, given that the lake is
artificial and (strangely) not fed by streams, perhaps the alders are
a human-introduced population, and a small-seeded clone or variety was
chosen by chance because it was the one available -- or, indeed,
chosen for some other character entirely.

Maybe. I doubt if records have been kept or indeed were ever made. But
a new thought has crossed my mind. I looked at the alders around. on
the various burns they were rather different from each other. Alders
obviously spread down the burns, so I went to the mouth of the
Wansbeck where there is scrubby woodland. I found a large variety of
alders, their ancestors obviously swept down the Wansbeck. I hope to
find interesting hybrids tomorrow.

Michael Bell

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