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hi there, hope someone can help me with this question as im definatly no tree expert ...

in the middle of our feild there is a large tree, which i thought was just "an ordinary tree" however on walking past it the other day i noticed large quantities of catkins? , i normally accociate catkins with nut trees , could anyone tell me what it is and have i indeed got a nut tree in our feild?
the tree is aprox 4+ meters high

heres some pictures ..

looks like a Hazel to me - there's one next door - but the catkins have dropped now

I think it's hazel too. What a nice surprise!

i thought hazelnuts were low shrubs/bushes ? this is a great tree ?

Sorry to disagree with everyone, but I'm pretty sure that's an Alder tree you have there.
I can't really see from the photo but if it has dark, almost red twigs, then it's definitely an Alder ... Hazel has "light nut brown" twigs.
Also it's the wrong shape for a Hazel.

Odsox wrote:Sorry to disagree with everyone, but I'm pretty sure that's an Alder tree you have there.
I can't really see from the photo but if it has dark, almost red twigs, then it's definitely an Alder ... Hazel has "light nut brown" twigs.
Also it's the wrong shape for a Hazel.

Seconded, its an alder.

My alders have reddish coloured catkins! They tend to grow beside streams and rivers.

We have one of these - it's escaped Andy's chain saw!

You can see it here...
http://www.gardenplansireland.com/forum/about635.html

OK, yours might not a BLACK Alder, but it's definitely an Alder - ours is a LOT bigger than this, it's one of the tallest trees we had in the garden. I'm hopeless at heights, but somewhere around 16 - 18 foot high I think.
Luckily, although it's besides our veggie patch, it's to the side where the sun doesn't really affect it & will give the beds some dappled shade in the mornings.

Hope that helps

I don't know what kind of alders I have (loads of them from young to about 60 foot high, either beside the pond or in the orchard by the stream). I agree that the shape of the tree is like a young alder and at first I thought it might be that but what I can't see in the photo is the seed pods from the previous year and the new ones that abound on my trees, which is why I opted for hazel. Having said that I have never seen a single stemmed hazel, except for the new saplings which are appearing in my woodland. I know what happens to hazel if you coppice it! But I have seen a programme about hazelnut farming on the telly and the trees were all single trunked (which surprised me) in more normal tree shapes than your usual multi stemmed hazel. Plus the colour of the catkins (yellow), and the overall colour of the tree (not a red colour) lead me to think hazel rather than alder. Anyway as soon as the leaves open it will be easy to see what it is!

Now goes off to see if there are other kinds of alder.

Edited to say that after squinting hard I can now see two alder seed pods.

Millymollymandy wrote:But I have seen a programme about hazelnut farming on the telly and the trees were all single trunked (which surprised me) in more normal tree shapes than your usual multi stemmed hazel.

We used to have a nut plantation and I can tell you that the single trunk only exists because all the suckers are pruned out every year.

As for Alder trees, did you know they are part of the pea/bean family and have nitrogen nodules on their roots ... also they can be coppiced for firewood.

Interesting about the hazels, thank you Odsox. I learnt about the alder's nitrogen fixing this morning whilst googling different alders (no doubt we all have Black Alder as that seems to be the only European one).

I don't know whether my huge old alders were once coppiced because they all grow in big multi-trunked groups. Wish I could cut one or two of them for firewood cos that would keep us going for years but unfortunately the chainsaw is not big enough and neither are we experienced (or mad) enough to even try!

One of the groups of trees is dead and is the local starlings' favourite roost. They really need to come down for safety reasons but they are a bit of a nightmare as no-one could climb up them as they are unsafe, they can't be felled because they are so tall they'd crush my fence and block the road, and the only alternative would be a cherry picker in my orchard which would involve it having to cross the ditch and we'd have to cut the fence, because the only entrance has an apple tree right in front of it. But that would trash my ground/grass plus I'm terrified of how much it would cost!!!

thanks for all your help and comments, ir does have sort of reddybrown stems, and a few pods left from lasst year?

we are quite near a brook too