Scientific name: Alnus glutinosa (L.) Gaertn.
Common name: Alder
Description
Habit: Deciduous tree, to 25 m high, with an oval or pyramidical, dense crown.
Leaves: Simple, opposite, dark green on both sides, 4-6 cm long, broadly oval, with blunt tip, irregularly, bluntly and doubly toothed.
Flowers: In stalked catkins which are in small panicles, appearing before the leaves, the male slender and drooping, female shorter and erect; male flowers 3 per bract, 4 bracteoles in each group, with a very small perianth, 4 stamens; female flowers 2 per bract, 4 bracteoles in each group, perianth absent; bracts of female catkins turning woody and persisting on the tree, like small pine-cones.
Fruits: An achene, narrowly winged; several in a pine-cone-like structure.
Twigs: Brown-grey, hairless.
Bark: Dark brown, fissured on older trees but not peeling.
Habitat: Lake-shores, riverbanks, damp woods and on marshy land.
Distribution: Rather local.
Native status: Native
Of conservation interest: No