Silver birch leaves are triangles, with straight sides running to a fine point and an edge of big teeth with smaller ones in between.
Native · Up to 30 m
Silver birch
Betula pendula · Betulaceae
Silver birch is a slim, fast-growing tree with a light, open crown. Its bark is white and papery, with rough black diamonds at the base. The finest twigs hang straight down.
Often mistaken for downy birch. How to tell them apart →Know it by
LeavesTriangular, with big and small teeth.
BarkPapery white, with black diamonds and a rough, dark base.
ShapeBranches rise, and the fine twig ends hang straight down.
LeavesTriangular, with big and small teeth.BarkPapery white, with black diamonds and a rough, dark base.ShapeBranches rise, and the fine twig ends hang straight down.Then check · TwigsSlender, dark purplish shoots, hairless but rough to the touch, with small white resin warts all along them.
How to identify a silver birch
The bark is white and papery and peels in thin strips. Rough black diamonds run across it, and the base of the trunk is dark and cracked.
The crown is light and open, with branches that rise and fine twig ends that hang straight down.
Learn the silver birch in TreelyEvery part through the year, and a short round each day until you know it.Get Treely
Every part, in photographs
Zeke Marshall, CC BY 4.0
Andrew Skotnicki, CC BY 4.0
Helen Waterman, CC BY 4.0
Георгий Виноградов (Georgy Vinogradov), CC BY 4.0When to look
JFMAMJJASOND
In leaf
Catkins
Seed catkins
In leaf: April to November · Catkins: November to May · Seed catkins: May to November
Every tree on the calendar · How to identify trees in winter
Where you’ll find it
Heaths, sandy or open woods, moorland edges and any bare ground its seed reaches, all over Britain and Ireland up to the tree line. It is also planted in parks and gardens. On wet or clay soils downy birch takes over.
What it’s mistaken for
Silver birch or downy birch?Both are white-barked native birches with triangular leaves and catkins.Young shoot→
Silver birch or aspen?Both are pale-barked trees that spring up on open ground.Trunk→
Silver birch or alder?Both hang catkins in spring, and both are in the birch family.Leaf shape and tip→
More birches, alders, hazel and hornbeam
In the app
There’s more of the silver birch in Treely
- Every part, through the yearLeaves, bark, buds, flowers and fruit, photographed in every season
- Its lookalikes, side by sideThe checks that settle it, part by part
- A short round each dayUntil you know the silver birch on sight, from any side
- Name it from a photoA leaf, the bark or a flower, and Treely tells you which tree
Free to download.
Every fact on this page is checked against the Collins Tree Guide, last in November 2026. Spotted something that looks wrong in front of a real tree? Tell us. How we check.
Photographs: Георгий Виноградов (Georgy Vinogradov) (CC BY 4.0), Ben Deed (CC BY 4.0), John Proctor (CC BY 4.0), Bob (CC BY 4.0), steve_mcwilliam (CC0), Zeke Marshall (CC BY 4.0), Andrew Skotnicki (CC BY 4.0), sim_elliott (CC0), Helen Waterman (CC BY 4.0), Thomas Gyselinck (CC BY 4.0), jamie-aa (CC BY 4.0). With thanks to everyone who shares their photographs on iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons.