There are about 30 species and many cultivars of the short-lived Alder. Most of these deciduous trees like colder climates and moist or wet soils along streams and ponds. Use in grove plantings or as single, multi-trunked trees. Spring flowers are followed by toothed leaves and cone-like fruits. Roots can be shallow and invasive. They grow rapidly in infertile and poorly drained soils. Prune in winter to remove dead or damaged limbs.
The new bark on this fast-growing pyramidal to pyramidal-rounded tree is glistening brown. Yellow catkins appear in late winter and early spring, followed by heart-shaped leaves.