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Silver birch flowers

 

 

The female flowers we find on the short shoots, they are upright and 2-3 centimetres long, hanging when ripe. The male flowers, formed already in August last year, sit at the tips of the shoots and are half as long again as the female ones.

 

The silver birch grows into a great tree; in old age a thick dark grey crust is formed on the lower part of the trunk. The trunks are straight and it grows to a height of some thirty-five metres in favourable conditions. The shoots are reddish-brown and covered with little resin warts.