Description

Hut 2
A tall shrub or small tree with multiple, crooked, leggy trunks. Bent in a wide curve at their base, the trunks become upright and picturesque. Deciduous leaves are rounded and coarsely toothed, remaining dark-green in autumn. Monoecious catkins appear before the leaves emerge. Purplish-brown male catkins are slender, cylindrical and pendulous. Green, round female catkins are clustered on stalks. Female flowers are pollinated by wind and followed by fruiting cones that resemble pinecones. Cones persist on the tree into winter.

Commonly called speckled alder because of the white warty lenticels (pores) that speckle the bark.

Attracts birds, small mammals.

Height: 40-60 ft.
Spread: 30-50 ft.
Family: Betulaceae
Bloom time: March
Sun: full sun to part shade
Water: medium to wet
Deer and rabbit resistant

photo credit: Quadell