Alder or "brown", which is also a root for the English words "elk" and another tree: "elm", a tree distantly related to the alders. With a few exceptions, alders are deciduous, and the leaves are alternate, simple, and serrated. The flowers are catkins with elongate male catkins on the same plant as shorter female catkins, often before leaves appear; they are mainly wind-pollinated, but also visited by bees to a small extent. These trees differ from the birches ("Betula", another genus in the family) in that the female catkins are woody and do not disintegrate at maturity, opening to release the
Pteryx Pteryx Pteryx is a genus of beetles that is typically found in northern bogs in the Northern Hemisphere. They belonging to the family Ptiliidae which is referred to as feather-winged beetles as the hindwings are narrow and feather-like. Like most of the rest of the family, "Pteryx" are very small and live in rotting vegetative matter. They prefer rotting wood and are generally found under the bark of rotting logs or stumps. The "Pteryx" are less than 1 mm in length. They are polymorphic, in that they frequently occur in two forms, a normal variety, and a neonate form that