Leaves

• oval, 4 – 8 cm long
• rounded or heart-shaped at the base, and finely sharp-toothed
• they are dark green, hairless and wrinkled above, whitened and dull, and often somewhat hairy beneath
• the main veins beneath are brown and hairy
• there are 10 or more pair of veins to each leaf and cross veins join to form a ladder-like pattern

Fruit

• small wingless nutlets in oval, woody ‘cones’, 1 – 2 cm long
• nutlets mature in the fall but the ‘cones’ often persist for a year or more

Bark

• smooth, reddish-brown with conspicuous horizontal orange lenticels

General

• grow to 3.5 m or more in height
• found in wet places – swamps, stream margins and other low-lying areas
• it is absent from the Avalon Peninsula and the Great Northern Peninsula
• in Labrador it occurs mostly in the forested areas ranging as far north as 55 degrees latitude