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
Fokienia Tuyên Quang, Yên Bái and Vĩnh Phú), west central Vietnam (provinces of Đắk Lắk, Gia Lai, Lâm Đồng), and west to northern Laos. The name derives from the old Romanised name of Fujian province, China, from where the first specimen was introduced to Europe, collected by Captain Hodgins in 1908. "Fokienia" is an evergreen tree, 25–30 m tall. It has greyish-brownish bark that peels off when the tree is young. On older trees, the bark presents longitudinal fissures and becomes aromatic. The leaves are arranged in flattened branchlet systems, with the branchlets in one plane. The leaves on adult trees