2. Hi, my name is James and I would like to tell you about my Tree Project, it is a study of a Silver Birch tree that grows in my back garden. The tree you can see is an example of a Silver Birch. I hope you enjoy reading my project.

3. Some Info about the Silver Birch There are two types of birch in Ireland, downy and silver. The most usual is the downy birch, which like silver birch is a delicate tree with fine branches and small leaves. The springtime flowers are catkins which stay on the tree and contain the mature seed by autumn. Birch will grow in poor soils, but likes a sunny position. Downy birch is tolerant of wet sites, but silver birch needs good drainage.. Birch is typically grows in peat at the edge of bogs, and on the light sand and gravel soils. It makes a good ornamental garden tree, as it does not grow too large. Like alder, its seeds are popular with small seed-eating birds. In early times walkways, usually across bog land were made from birch. Nowadays, it is more commonly used in making plywood.

4. Tree Facts Why is a tree so tall? A tree is tall for two reasons: A tree grows taller and wider every year. Plants such as daffodils and grass die back every year after flowering so they will never grow tall like a tree. A tree has a strong woody trunk which is able to hold up the branches. A tall flower such as a sunflower has to be tied up and supported to stop thewind blowing it over. This is because the sunflower does not have a woody stem.

5. Tree Facts How old is a tree? You can tell the age of a tree by counting the rings. There is one ring for each year. How old are tree number 1 and number 2?

6. How a Tree Lives The leaves of the tree make food. They use sunlight as energy for this. Food is only made during the day. The food moves down the tree through the bark to the roots. Like all plants, trees need water to live. Water is taken from the soil by the roots. It moves up the tree to the leaves through the wood of the trunk.

7. Types of Trees Some trees lose their leaves every autumn. The leaves change colour before they fall off the tree. A tree that loses its leaves every autumn is a deciduous tree. In September and October, it is easy to recognise deciduous trees. Some trees, such as the holly and the yew, have green leaves all year round. These are called evergreen trees. Some evergreen trees have small needle-like leaves and cones. These are conifers.

8. Observation One Our Silver Birch is in the southwest corner of our back garden. The tree is approximately 13 years old (It was planted when our house was built) It is approximately 7-8 metres high and 3 metres wide at its widest. Its bark is rough to touch (see photo)

9. Observation Two The leaves have short slender stalks and are 3 to 7 cm long, triangular with broad, wedge-shaped bases, slender pointed tips and serrated margins. They are sticky with resin at first but this dries as they age leaving small white scales. The foliage is a pale to medium green and turns yellow early in the autumn before the leaves fall. In mid-summer, the female catkins mature and the male catkins expand and release pollen, and wind pollination takes place. The small 1 to 2 mm winged seeds ripen in late summer on pendulous, cylindrical catkins 2 to 4 cm long and 7 mm broad. The seeds are very numerous and are separated by scales, and when ripe, the whole catkin disintegrates and the seeds are spread widely by the wind.

10. Observation Three Rough Dimensions: 6-7 metres high and 3 metres wide Actual Dimensions: 5.5 metres high and 4 metres wide

11. Observation Four Silver birch is a very important wildlife tree and is valued as a resource for conservation, habitat and landscape purposes. Silver birch leaves attract aphids which in turn provide food for many ladybird species and blue, great and long-tailed tits. The leaves are also food for the angle-shades moth, the buff tip, the pebble hook-tip, and the large and little emerald moths. Silver birch supports well over 300 insect species; a fact that makes these trees a favoured foraging place for woodpeckers which often make nesting holes in the trunk. Birch seeds also provide winter food for siskins, greenfinches and redpolls.

12. Observation Five Bark is white and papery when young; flaking to reveal dark fissures with age. Twigs are hairless with resin glands. Branches have a drooping appearance. Leaves are alternate, pointed, triangular, hairless and doubly- toothed. Flowers are arranged as a catkin named this as they resemble a kitten’s tail. Flowers are long, yellow-brown catkins which hang in groups of two to four at the tips of shoots. After wind pollination they become brown and thicken. Seeds are tiny winged nutlets produced in large numbers and wind dispersed.

13. The End