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
Northern Hemisphere to draw air toward it in a counter-clockwise pattern. Hurricanes and tropical storms (massive low-pressure systems) spin counter-clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere. The shadow of a sundial moves clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere (opposite of the Southern Hemisphere). During the day, the Sun tends to rise to its maximum at a southerly position except between the Tropic of Cancer and the Equator, where the sun can be seen to the north, directly overhead, or to the south at noon dependent on the time of year. When viewed from the Northern Hemisphere, the Moon appears inverted compared to a view from