Perhaps my favourite tree, one of the first trees to recolonise Britain after the ice sheets retreated. It is an opportunist tree, producing hundreds of windblown seeds that are quick to germinate and grow rapidly making it the bain of gamekeepers and foresters alike. Even the National Trust control the tree cover on their moorland otherwise it will succeed to birch wood. The name silver birch is a relatively recent invention; first used by Tennyson in one of his poems.
Leave a Reply