9 of the World’s Most Unusual Trees

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6Silver birch, Finland

In the snow, the improbably-white bark of Scandinavia and north-eastern Europe’s birch trees is truly mesmerising. Strangely enough, the bark has evolved that way to reflect light – even trees can have too much of a good thing.

Like other trees, the birch lives with a fungal partner, whose microscopic filaments plug into the roots and fan out under the forest, hoovering up nutrients that tree roots can’t quite reach. In return, the tree keeps the fungus happy with sugars.