Alnus Incana spp Rugosa Speckled Alder is prized for the purplish-brown, cylindrical, slender male catkins with yellow pollen and green, rounded female catkins. The female catkins give way to fruiting cones embedded with winged seeds, maturing reddish-brown in fall. Speckled Alder is a fast-growing deciduous shade tree that bears dark green leathery leaves with wrinkled surfaces and red-hairy undersides. The leaves are wedge-shaped, with pointed tips with doubly serrated margins. Speckled Alder is ideal for landscape plantings. The shade tree thrives in full sun to part shade and medium to wet soils.