A tree that seems to me to have grown in popularity over the past fifty years is the silver birch. Where the Victorians and Edwardians had no qualms about planting London Plane, lime, horse chestnut and many other large trees in our cities and towns, in more recent times smaller trees have been favoured. Whitebeam and rowan now proliferate, but the architects' favourite is surely the silver birch. It is slender, blocks light less than many other trees and has attractive bark. What is often forgotten is that it sheds seeds and twigs copiously around its planting site. However, the delicate tracery of its branches against the rectilinear grid of glass curtain walls, as in this London example, is hard to beat, and architects are still choosing the tree in great numbers to complement their buildings.
photo © T. Boughen Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10
