I received a number of pictures from a concerned dog walker this week. Alarmed by the appearance of the bark on this Silver Birch, she asked me if there was anything to be worried about.

I reassured her that this is typical of the variability we see in the bark of the Common Silver Birch.

While some trees display perfect white bark around their whole stem, this example is also seen. We can also expect the rough brown bark to appear as the tree ages.