Alder

The wood of the alder, which is typical in lowland forests and along the shores of slow-flowing brooks, has a lovely grain. Faintly marked annual rings create decorative figures tangentially and delicate stripes radially. The often bundled wood rays show themselves on the tangential plane as dark stripes and on the radial side sometimes as irregular flecks or bands and sometimes as intergrown rift grain. Characteristic of the alder’s reddish white to reddish brown wood are the frequently occurring fine hairs, which are actually pith flecks.