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
Thuja occidentalis its common names, it is not a true cedar in the genus "Cedrus", nor is it related to the Australian white cedar, "Melia azedarach". Unlike the closely related western red-cedar ("Thuja plicata"), northern white-cedar is only a small or medium-sized tree, growing to a height of tall with a trunk diameter, exceptionally to tall and diameter. The tree is often stunted or prostrate in less favorable locations. The bark is red-brown, furrowed and peels in narrow, longitudinal strips. Northern white-cedar has fan-like branches and scaly leaves. The foliage forms in flat sprays with scale-like leaves long. The seed cones are