"Birch has both male and female flowers on the same tree. the female flowers are small erect catkins. They await the touch of pollen from the male catkins, which wake from their wintry dormant state just prior to the appearance of leaves on the tree. Long and pendulous with pollen, the male catkins need insects and wind to help pollinate the female flowers, which then become swollen with the bulk of seed. By July, the seeds have become light brown and hang, still clustered in a catkin shape, waiting for the wind to make them airborne. A single female catkin contains hundreds of the tiny two-winged seeds, each one capable of becoming a new birch tree.
In autumn, when all the seeds are finally taken from the tree by the wind, the young male catkins for next year appear on the tip of each new shoot. They turn from green to purply brown and remain in this wintry state until the following spring."
-- Excerpted from "Tree Wisdom", by Jacqueline Paterson
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