Birch, Silver

Description

Graceful, native, deciduous tree of upright habit but with fountain-like drooping branchlets and attractive 6cm (2ins) long, yellow pendulous, male catkins, and smaller female catkins in winter and spring. Produces masses of tiny seeds which provide good food for birds. The bark is orange-red on young stems, soon changing to silver with distinctive black arrows. On mature trees the trunk becomes rough at the base. The broadly ovate, sharply pointed, mid-green, coarsely double-toothed leaves, turn yellow in autumn before falling. Very hardy.