Silver birch

Birch twigs with coloured feathers are the Easter påskris, and fresh birch leaves decorate homes and the maypole at Midsummer.

The silver birch is a slender broadleaf tree reaching 25–30 m, with white bark that peels in papery strips and drooping twigs covered in small warts. Its diamond-shaped, doubly toothed leaves turn golden yellow in autumn. As a pioneer species it quickly colonises clearings, burnt areas and abandoned fields, and its light, winged seeds are carried long distances by the wind. Birch wood is used for furniture and plywood, and the bark and spring sap have served households for centuries.

Significance in the country

The birch is Sweden’s commonest broadleaf tree and an inseparable part of its customs – at Easter, påskris twigs decorated with coloured feathers are put in vases, and at Midsummer birch leaves decorate doors and the maypole. In the past birch bark was woven into baskets, snuffboxes and shoes.

Where it grows

Throughout the country – in mixed forests, at field edges, in parks and avenues; in the far north and in the mountains it is replaced by the downy birch (fjällbjörk).

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