Alder is a tree of many contradictions.  He is often of medium-size and can appear more like a shrub, although he can grow to be 90 feet tall.  His wood is white while living, and when cut turns to red.  While young his bark is smooth and glossy, with age becomes dark grey and fissured.  Most impressively perhaps is his relationship with water.  Above ground, his wood is prone to rot.  However when submerged in water, he becomes as hard as stone.  For this reason, it is a much loved wood in Venice.  Add to that his ability to burn at incredibly high temperatures and we begin to understand his power of thresholds as his heat can soften a wide array of metals.  Alder is a pioneer tree, growing on riverbanks and at the edge of forests. He provides food and shelter for wildlife and has a symbiotic relationship with a bacterium that transforms nitrogen from the air into the soil, leaving the soil richer. In Celtic Lore, the first man was born of an Alder tree.  It is said that in some parts of Ireland it remains forbidden to cut down alder trees, for the fear of his supernatural connections with little folk and mythic creatures is strong.

The Magic of Alder

The Medicine of Alder

Science of Alder