Greening Wymondham

Known as a "pioneer tree", the fast growing Birch is one of the first to colonise cleared ground. It births the forest by dropping its leaves and using nitrogen fixing nodules on its roots to enrich the soil for any future plants or trees. The trio of Silver birches in Standley Court don’t need to do that, instead they provide a lovely focal point for the surrounding residents.

The slender twigs hang down gracefully, adorned with small serrated edged leaves, which fade to yellow in autumn. The white bark sheds layers like tissue paper and becomes black and rugged at the base. As the trees mature, the bark develops dark, diamond-shaped fissures. Both male and female flowers (catkins) are found on the same tree.

Birch is linked to the first letter of the medieval Celtic alphabet, the Ogham. and is associated with renewal, sweeping out the old to bring in the new. Bundles of the thin twigs are still used to make besom brooms, the archetypal witches’ broomsticks.