Alder love to grow in wet places or close to water, although it will grow in most soils as long as it is moist and not too dry or chalky.
It is one of the last trees to put out its leaves in spring and doesn’t lose its leaves until late autumn/early winter. The Alder can easily be spotted in the depths of winter due to the fact it will quite often still have its old cones attached to the bare branches.
It is a smallish tree, conical in shape, although, it can grow to around 20m when fully mature.
Young twigs are sticky and covered with orange warts. Winter buds are stalked and have a purplish colour.
The leaves are bright green and are round or widest above the middle. They are doubly toothed and sometimes have a shallow notch at the tip.
Flowers appear around February / March before the leaves. Male flowers appear as catkins (20-60mm in length). These are initially purple and later on turn a yellowish colour. Female flowers are produced in stalked clusters of 3-8 (approx 15mm) starting as purple and later become green.
The fruit is woody and resembles a small cone. It contains narrowly winged nutlets and measures approx 10-30mm in size.