Himalayan Birch

Read all about it - bark you can write on

The beauty of many trees in the Park is largely down to foliage, the sculptural form of the tree itself or its blossom, but with some trees, beautiful bark is one of the main attractions. This is certainly the case with this birch, with bright, white bark providing striking interest all year round.

If you visit in the autumn, you will also see its leaves have gone a bright-yellow, just before they are shed for winter, making this tree quite a star in the Winter Gardens.

A native of the Himalayas, this tree can reach up to 20 m and usually tends to form forests. In the Himalayas, due to the pressure of the deep snow, their growth is often bent, luckily for this birch, even with the snowy winter weather in London, it hopefully won't don’t suffer the same consequence!

Not only stunning in colour, the birch is also very useful. For thousands of years around the world, the bark of birch trees has been used by man as an important material for making things, including being used as something to write on!