silver birch

Betula pendula

• Slender deciduous tree
   
• Up to 30m tall
   
• Smooth, silvery-white bark that develops deep, dark fissures with age
   
• Oval leaves have double-toothed serrations along edges and neither leaf stems nor leaves are hairy (that’s downy birch).
   
• Male catkins are long, drooping and yellow
   
• Female catkins are slender, green and are upright when flowering, drooping in fruit
   
• Leaves turn yellow and then golden in autumn

The gherkin-shaped fruiting catkins turn brown in winter and, helped by birds, release tiny winged nutlets
 

Where found

Light sandy soils in woodland, heath and moor, also colonises wasteland.
 

Record seasonal events

You can help scientists monitor the effect of climate change on this species by telling us the dates when its buds burst, catkins flower & fruit and leaves grow, tint and fall off where you live

• March/April for leaves and catkins
   
• Leaves drop in November