Yellow Alder: Growing & Healing Attributes

Also called yellow elder (Turnera ulmifolia), West Indian Holly, ram goat dashalong, yellow buttercup, buttercup bush, Cuban buttercup, Bahamian buttercup, sage rose and false Damiana, (though it is not closely related to buttercup, holly, rose, alder or elder) yellow alder is a tropical shrub in the Passionflower family native to the Caribbean basin.

It is a low, bushy plant that reaches a height of 2-3 feet. Yellow flowers are produced all year long among shiny green serrated oval-shaped leaves.

Origins and lore

The Odyssey narrates that around Calypso’s cave grew a lush forest of alders, poplars, and cypresses, trees associated with death and resurrection. Its name derives from Fearinos, a pre-Hellenic deity whose name meant “of the dawn of the year” because sacrifices were offered to him on the day of the spring equinox (when the alder tree was in bloom).

The Irish Ossianic poem “Song of the Forest Trees” describes him as “a true magician of battle, the most ardent tree in the fight.” In Ireland, felling a sacred alder was considered a crime, and the punishment for the criminal was to set fire to its house. Its wood was used to make milk pails, and so it is connected to Rhea-Io, the white lunar cow.

Dyes are obtained from the alder: green from the flowers, red from the bark, and brown from the branches (symbols of water, fire, and earth). According to British tradition, green is associated with the robes of fairies.

The crow, sacred to Saturn, feeds on its cherries, and Ovid lists it as one of the trees that provided food for humans in the Age of Saturn.

Andersen’s fairy tale, “The Marsh King’s Daughter,” recounts the descent into the underworld of a princess who rises from the root of an alder tree, an image of the axis mundi.

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In magic, it is used to connect with one’s own Shadow, the very thing we tend to deny. Sacred to the Druids, it is said to provide spiritual, physical, and emotional protection. It corresponds to the letter “Fearn” of the Ogham alphabet and the rune “Isa.”

Bran “the Blessed,” a deity of Celtic mythology, is also associated with the alder tree and the symbolism of resurrection: he possessed a cauldron that had the ability to revive all that was dead. The cauldron is an object designed to contain, similar to a womb, and therefore recalls the archetype of the Great Mother.

The alder was once called the “witches’ tree,” perhaps due to its sinister, gnarled appearance. When the tree is cut, it appears to bleed, as its wood changes color from white to red; this gave rise to the legend that the tree is home to the “red man,” a spirit tasked with rescuing humans lost in the afterlife.

The alder grows along rivers and lakes, where land and water intersect and the threshold between worlds is thinnest. Whistles made from its wood are said to attract air elementals, bending them to the will of wizards and witches. Fairies also enjoy dancing beneath its flowering branches.

 According to Irish tradition, man was created from the alder and woman from the rowan. The alder is also one of the May trees, evoking spiritual rebirth. Keeping a branch in the home is said to ward off anxiety and nervousness.

Alder leaf baths, still practiced in some mountain villages, are anti-rheumatic, while glycerine macerates treat tonsillitis and tracheitis. A decoction of its bark is ideal as a mouthwash.

Interesting fact: it’s a truly durable wood; in fact, the Rialto Bridge in Venice rests on alder posts. Agrippa wrote that the alder is man’s enemy. Standing under its branches would bring bad luck!

Use it for: recovering strength and mental clarity. To soothe the pain of a farewell, protect the home, and stabilize any aspect of life.

Stones to associate with alder: obsidian, lepidolite, fossil wood, ruby.

Popular belief

Returning to the ancient belief that this tree bled when cut, this fact can be interpreted as an expression of sympathy and goodwill, based on a simple projection: “If an axe wounds a man, it will certainly wound a tree too.”

And the alder does indeed bleed: its sap turns red when it comes into contact with air, and this is an occult fact worth pondering.

Therefore, this tree has always been surrounded by a strong atmosphere of mysticism and affection.

The symbolism

The Alder is connected to the Sun and Water, and in this respect it is associated with the ash. While the ash tree resembles a ray of sunshine descending from above toward the moist soil, the Alder comes from the heart of the Earth.

And while the ash tree reaches out resolutely upward, toward its origins, the Alder simply embraces the Earth. The Greek name klethra, in this regard, derives from kleio, “I close, I embrace.”

The Alder is a weaver of life; its threads are the same elements: Fire, Earth, Water, and Air, and its weave, ever in motion, is the carpet of vegetation.

The medieval saga of Wulfdietrich, preserved in 13th-century courtly poetry, tells of the “Queen of the Alder,” who in various German legends appears as a beautiful woman who teaches men to follow their hearts and not their desires.

Her various names are Else, Elsa, and Elise, forms still common in the Anglo-Saxon Alor and the Gothic Alisa.

The second canto of this saga tells of Else, following a spell in which she is involved with the Hero she loves, being transformed into a tree with rough bark.

Only when she can bathe in a Magic Spring will her skin become smooth and she will once again become the most beautiful woman in the world, taking a new name: Sigeminne, “Victory of Love.”

This fragment of oral tradition illustrates a common theme in Celtic mythology: the Hero, or King, marries the Earth Goddess. In the earthly dimension, she may appear rough like the bark of a tree, but on other levels of reality, she possesses an angelic splendor.

The Alder Tree also appears more than once in Irish mythology: Diarmund, Grania, and Deirdre hide in it during their escape in the Alder Marshes of Argyll, Scotland.

Bran’s Cauldron

In Welsh tradition, it is the Sacred Tree of the mythical King Bran, the Blessed.

The giant Bran appears in the second part of the Mabinogion, a prose collection of early medieval stories originating in Wales and Ireland, as the rightful possessor of the Cauldron of Rebirth, but he eventually returns mortally wounded from the war with Ireland, during which the Cauldron is also destroyed and his death marks the end of an Age

Growing Yellow Alder

Yellow alder is not picky about soil and thrives in full sun to part shade, though it will be bushier if it gets more sun. It makes a nice ground cover in zones 9-11, and can be grown in a container in other areas.

Yellow alder is drought tolerant. It will reseed in its ideal habitat and may become invasive.

Yellow alder for Healing

Yellow alder is used traditionally to treat colds and flu, stomach aches, diarrhea, abdominal and menstrual cramps and for skin conditions. Studies have shown yellow alder to have antibacterial properties.

Warnings

Parts of this plant are toxic.

1. Turnera ulmifolia by Pick Him! at Flickr Some rights reserved creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike