Photos

Black alder (Alnus glutinosa) by most people in Latvia is considered to be almost weed - after the collapse of Soviet agriculture system this tree agressively takes over the wet meadows, turning them into thick and boring bush. People may be do not understand that nothing bad is happening to this land. Black alder just makes the soil more fertile by unique process of absorbing nitrogen from air.
The wood of black alder could be used for handicraft... but this tree rarely grows big enough to provide good wood for this purpose. The biggest black alder in Latvia has got circumference 4,5 m. Black alder in Latvia becomes monument of nature if its circumference at 1,3 m height exceeds 3,5 m... but there are not many.
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This black alder was cut some hours before - its crosscut got its characteristic red colour which some hours later becomes more and more pale.
Nearly no postprocessing done, just cropping.