Secret Beauty

The alder tree (Alnus glutinosa) is a tree on our list of memorial trees that families very seldom choose.  I wonder if the reason is simply because many aren’t that familiar with it – it’s not a tree commonly planted in gardens and parks. Yet to my mind it is one of the most beautiful.

After the hazel, it is the first to flower in the year. Indeed, we have many at Sun Rising (planted in hedgerow copses) that are flowering right now. Its male catkins begin green, but open to lovely yellows, edged with deep pink.  Its female flowers begin a smoky red, as little bunches on each stalk – when pollinated, these grow into the little cones we see in winter, some remaining on the trees when the catkins open in early spring.  Trees are ‘monoecious’, a single tree having both male and female flowers.

Alder Catkins in February Winds

Alder Catkins in February Winds

You can see in the photograph above the silver-streaked bark.  The alder is, in fact, related to the silver birch and, like the birch, can be the first to colonise new ground – which makes it ideal at Sun Rising, where we are planting trees for the first time in perhaps thousands of years.  It does well in wet soil, and as such it copes with our heavy clay.  It also works with a bacterium to fix nitrogen in the soil, enriching the soil, and so allowing other trees to flourish.  Indeed, the alder is being used elsewhere for similar purposes, regenerating post-industrial land, bringing it back to nature.

It’s a truly valuable tree.  In time, we hope to plant many more at Sun Rising, helping visitors become more familiar with this secret beauty.