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Northeast Wetland Flora

Field Office Guide to Plant Species

Gray Birch
Betula populifolia Marshall

JPG -- Species Photo JPG -- Distribution Map

Family: Birch (Betulaceae)
Flowering: April-May
Field Marks: This birch is distinguished by its long-pointed triangular leaves and its smooth white or bronze bark which peels in thin layers on old trunks.
Habitat: Moist or dry woods.
Habit: Tree to 45 feet tall, often sprouting from the base, trunk diameter up to 1 1/2 feet; bark white or bronze, smooth, eventually peeling off into sheets, and with blackish horizontal markings.
Twigs: Slender, reddish, warty but without hairs.
Leaves: Alternate, simple, triangular, long-pointed at the tip, truncate at the base, shiny, smooth, irregularly toothed, up to 2 1/2 inches long, up to 2 inches wide; leaf stalks slender, up to 1/2 inch long.
Flowers: Male and female borne separately but on the same plant, both short-stalked, the male crowded into slender spikes up to 3 inches long, the female crowded into short-cylindric spikes.
Sepals: 1 in the male flower, 0 in the female flower.
Petals: 0.
Stamens: 4.
Pistils: Ovary inferior.
Fruits: "Cones" short-cylindric, stalked, up to 1 1/4 inches long, composed of horizontal, minutely hairy bracts and broadly winged nuts.
Notes: The leaves quake with the lightest breeze.

Previous Species -- Sweet Birch (Betula lenta)
Return to Species List -- Group 5
Next Species -- Northern Catalpa (Catalpa speciosa)

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Page Last Modified: Thursday, 03-Aug-2006 11:39:25 EDT
Menlo Park, CA [caww55]