The Tree of the Year 1998 stands in a garden at Sniðgata in Akureyri and is a birch tree, with branches drooping from a large crown. No reliable information has been found on its origins, but information from previous owners of the house has indicated it came from a plant nursery at Hallormsstaður around 1920. The tree seems, despite it shape to be a downy birch (Betula pubescens) rather than silver birch (Betula verrucosa var. pendula). Birch trees of a similar drooping shape can be found in other gardens in the area, indicating that someone has purposefully cultivated trees with this shape in the early part of the 20th century.
Location of the tree on Google Maps: https://goo.gl/maps/JwBBuNWYC2YKqQA39
