The common alder is producing catkins alongside the South Walk.
A native of northern Africa, western Asia and Europe, including the British Isles, Alnus glutinosa, or the common alder, flourishes in wet conditions. It has a strong wood which doesn’t rot, dark, fissured bark and a conical habit reaching 25 m in height. It has dark, lightly serrated, pear-shaped leaves. A member of the birch family (Betulaceae) this is a wind-pollinated monoecious species with small female catkins which are conical in shape, and three to five pendent male catkins which are produced in winter.