European Alder
Alnus glutinosa · Betulaceae · 유럽오리나무
How to spot it
Marked by sticky surfaces on young leaves and twigs, drooping male catkins, and cone-like fruit clusters that stay on the branches for a long time.
Look
- Leaves
- Leaves are obovate to nearly round, and the surface of young leaves is sticky with resin.
- Flowers
- Reddish-brown male catkins hang down before the leaves emerge; female catkins form small cone-like clusters.
- Fruit
- Female catkins turn into hard, somewhat woody cone-like fruit clusters that stay through winter even after releasing their seeds.
- Bark
- On mature trees the gray to gray-brown bark is divided by shallow furrows into plates.
Where it grows
- Native to
- Native to Europe, North Africa and western Asia.
- Ecology
- Grows around wetlands, ponds, lakes and rivers, and can grow in poor soil thanks to nitrogen-fixing symbiosis.