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tree

Silver birch

Betula pendula

Native

Growing guidance

Horticultural figures below are practitioner estimates for planning, pending expert review. The botanical record further down is sourced and verifiable.

Current-climate suitability

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Future-climate resilience

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Sun

Full sun

Soil moisture

free-draining, average, moisture-retentive

Heat tolerance

Up to about 34°C

Cold tolerance

Down to about -35°C

Waterlogging tolerance

4/5

Drought tolerance

3/5

Mature size

8–18 m tall, 6 m spread

Seasonal interest

Spring catkins, autumn gold · White bark

Maintenance

low

Wildlife supported

General wildlife value 5/5 (verified species relationships are shown only where structured data exists)

How to plant it

General steps for this plant. Save a garden and these become specific to your location, soil and light.

  1. Step 1When to plant

    Plant during November to March, whenever the ground is not frozen or waterlogged.

    Woody plants establish best planted while dormant, so roots grow before the first summer.

  2. Step 2Where to put it

    Choose a position in full sun for most of the day. Allow 6 m of room around it — mature spread is 6 m and mature height 8–18 m.

    Light in your garden is not answered, so this is the plant's own requirement.

  3. Step 3Preparing the ground

    Dig a hole twice as wide as the root ball and no deeper, loosen the sides, and plant so the top of the root ball is level with the surrounding soil.

    Soil is not answered. This plant grows in free-draining, average, moisture-retentive conditions.

  4. Step 4Watering while it establishes

    Water thoroughly at planting (20–30 litres), then only when the top few centimetres of soil are dry, through the first two full growing seasons.

    Even a drought-tolerant plant (3/5 here) only becomes drought-tolerant once established.

  5. Step 5Mulch

    Spread 5–7 cm of composted bark or garden compost around the plant, keeping it clear of the stem.

    Mulch cuts water loss and suppresses weeds through the first summer, when losses are most likely.

  6. Step 6The first year

    Check it after strong wind and in long dry spells. Little else is needed.

    Maintenance level on the plant record is low.

  7. Step 7What to watch for

    Shallow roots compete strongly with nearby planting.

    Taken from the plant record and your measured climate figures, not from a general description.

Spacing: about 6 m apart — roughly 1 plant for every 10 m² if planted as a group.

What this guide could not use

  • No location saved, so planting times are general rather than local.
  • Soil moisture is not answered, so soil preparation is general advice.
  • Light is not answered, so the position below is the plant's own preference.
  • Whether you can water is not answered, so watering assumes hand watering.
Answer five questions to make this specific

Built by fixed rules from: Plant record for Silver birch (last reviewed 2026-06-01). Planting guide version gf-planting-1.0.0. Timings and volumes are practitioner estimates for planning, not a substitute for local nursery advice.

Known risks or warnings

Shallow roots compete strongly with nearby planting.

Toxicity: none

Status and jurisdiction

Native in United Kingdom (Great Britain).

Register consulted: GBIF Backbone Taxonomy distributions for Great Britain

Record review status: reviewed · last reviewed 2026-06-01 · plant data version gf-plants-2026.09.18. Status claims are never inferred from climate similarity, and growing figures are estimates pending expert review.

Verified botanical record

Accepted scientific name
Betula pendula Roth
Family
Betulaceae (Fagales)
Rank and status
species · accepted
GBIF record
Taxon 5331916

Recorded native range: Belgium, Brussels-Capital Region, Flanders, Flemish Region, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, Walloon Region

Recorded as introduced in: Argentina Northeast, Azores, Colorado, Connecticut, Cyprus, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, New Zealand North, New Zealand South, Ohio and 6 further regions

Ranges are exactly as recorded in the GBIF source checklists and may be incomplete for widely cultivated species.

Betula pendula, the silver birch, is a species of tree in the family Betulaceae It is native to Europe, Morocco, temperate Asia, Canada, and Alaska, although in southern Europe and Morocco it is only found at higher elevations. Its range extends into Siberia, China, and southwest Asia in the mountains of northern Turkey, the Caucasus, and northern Iran. It has also been called warty birch from the warty twigs, and (particularly for selected strongly pendulous cultivars) weeping birch; in Korea it has been cited as East Asian white birch, though this can also refer to Betula platyphylla. It has been introduced into North America, where it is sometimes known as European white birch, and is considered invasive in some states in the United States and parts of Canada.

Description from Wikipedia — Betula pendula (CC BY-SA), shortened and unedited in substance.

Native status and geographic context

  • United Kingdom: native
  • United States: climate-suitable
  • Australia: climate-suitable

Native status is never inferred from climate similarity. Plants restricted or invasive in a jurisdiction are excluded from recommendations there.

What to do next

Create a Garden Profile to see whether this plant suits your conditions.

Demonstration data

These figures come from the demonstration dataset kept for testing and as a fallback when the measured climate service is unavailable. They are representative, not observed, and are never presented as validated live data.