Silver Birch

Betula pendula

Silver Birch is a short lived deciduous species growing to some 30 metres in height. When young, its branches are upright but become more spreading and pendulous with age. The leaves are quite pointed and have rows of large toothed edges interspersed with smaller teeth. They are around 3-7cm in length. The leaf stalks (petioles) have no hairs. The male catkins are some 4-6cm long and turn from brown to yellow during the spring when the young leaves first appear. Female catkins are smaller and turn from green to brown during the spring. The bark is generally silver-white in colour and smooth, but near the base it can be rough and fissured with rectangular shaped plates. Silver Birch was one of the first trees to colonise Britain after the last ice age and tends to grow in fairly dry light soils, but only where there is plenty of light. It can form woodlands but gets replaced by larger tree species as these grow up around it. Silver Birch readily hybridises with Downy birch so that distinguishing the species is often difficult. The "witches broom" is a dense growth of tangled twigs, formed when the grub of an insect burrows into a bud.