Betula pendula scales. The foliage is a pale to medium green and turns yellow early in the autumn before the leaves fall. In mid-summer, the female catkins mature and the male catkins expand and release pollen, and wind pollination takes place. The small 1 to 2 mm winged seeds ripen in late summer on pendulous, cylindrical catkins long and broad. The seeds are very numerous and are separated by scales, and when ripe, the whole catkin disintegrates and the seeds are spread widely by the wind. Silver birch can easily be confused with the similar downy birch ("Betula pubescens"). Yet, downy birch
The Orange Peels The Orange Peels The Orange Peels is a Northern California band that primarily produce music about life on the West Coast. Their music has a unique blend of orchestral pop, rock and indie-pop. Though the band's lineup has changed with each successive album, founding members Allen Clapp and Jill Pries have been the nucleus. In its early days, the group was an outgrowth of singer-songwriter Allen Clapp's fictional band Allen Clapp and his Orchestra, credited for Clapp's debut album "One Hundred Percent Chance of Rain" (The Bus Stop Label, 1994). Soon after the album's release, Clapp's high school friend Larry