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Speckled Alder is a small tree, ranging from 2 to 5 metres in height, and 5 to 10 cm in diameter. It likes to be around wet places, and in the Algonquin Highlands they are found along streams, marshes, and lakes. Its named Speckled as they have many white lenticels (speckles) on their dark bark.
Its leaves are oval, double-toothed, and 5 to 12cm long. Underneath the leaves are usually much lighter.
There are two types of flowers on Speckled Alder. The female (pistillate) catkins are very short and droop in the winter. These become flowers which develop into seed-bearing cones (fruit) that are about 1/2" long and are present all winter. The male (staminate) catkins develop into tightly- packed catkins, approximately 1" long that flower and grow in the spring.
The Speckled Alder’s flowers are borne on catkins. Male catkins are slender, scaly, about 2.5 cm long; female catkins are smaller, cone-like, about half the size of the male catkins, and are clustered at the branch ends.
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