
Birchwood
Birchwood is our most widespread and extensive type of woodland, growing in large swathes on more acid, infertile upland soils.
Birchwood is our most widespread and extensive type of woodland, growing in large swathes on more acid, infertile upland soils.
Three birch species are native to Britain:
As pioneer trees, birches can rapidly colonise disturbed ground to form even-aged woods. Young birches may regenerate onto adjacent, previously unwooded areas, often in response to fire and changes in grazing pressure.
Upland birchwoods are included on the Scottish Biodiversity List.
Birchwoods on poorer soils contain few woody associates other than rowan, the occasional holly and sessile oak, and, locally, Scots pine.
More fertile sites may feature:
Juniper sometimes forms an understory in birchwoods of the eastern Highlands. Aspen occurs within upland birchwoods where mineral soil is present, often as small groups and rarely as large stands.
On all but the most acidic sites, birch ‘improves’ the soil to allow a grass-herb flora to develop on sites previously dominated by dwarf shrub heath.
Very few plant species only live in birchwoods. But birchwoods do favour the growth of grasses and herbs that are less common outside woods. They also support a very rich range of mosses and liverworts (bryophytes), including many rarities in western woods.
Some northern plants like chickweed wintergreen and globeflower (in ungrazed woods) are strongly associated with Highland birchwoods.
Birchwoods provide valuable habitat for:
The wood itself rots quickly and provides valuable dead wood habitat for fungi, beetles and hole-nesting birds.
You can visit some great examples of this woodland type on National Nature Reserves (NNRs).
Read about the birchwoods on:
Planning and development: trees and woodland