White birch

Leaves

Form

• Ovate or triangular, tip-pointed
• Widest below the middle
• Base broadly wedge-shaped, rounded, straight or cordate, and smooth-edged
• 9 veins per side or fewer
• Preformed leaves become hairless
• Neoformed leaves remain hairy, especially at the vein axils

Length

• 5–10 cm

Colour

• Upper surface dull green
• Lower surface lighter green

Margin

• Double-toothed
• Each vein ends in a large tooth with 3–5 smaller intervening teeth
• 33–55 teeth per side

Buds

Form

• Slender, tapering to a blunt point
• Resinous

Length

• 5–7 mm

Colour

• Scales greenish toward the base
• Brown toward the tip

Twigs

Form

• Slender, hairy, developing sparse warty resin glands

Colour

• Dark reddish-brown

Flowers

Form

• Pollen catkins in clusters of 1–3
• Seed catkins erect

Length

• Pollen catkins 1–3 cm, 9 cm at pollination
• Seed catkins 1–2 cm

Width

• Pollen catkins 2–4 mm in winter

Colour

• Stigmas pink or red

Structure

• Monoecious

Fruits

Form

• Mature seed catkins hang from dwarf shoots
• Scales variable, usually hairy, with 2 rounded lateral lobes diverging from a short, pointed central lobe

Length

• Mature seed catkins 3–5 cm
• Nutlets 1.5–2.5 mm
• Scales 2–3 mm

Width

• Nutlets half as wide as long
• Wings much wider than the nutlet

Timing

• Fruits and scales shed from September onward

Bark

Form

• Thin, smooth
• Often shedding in large sheets

Colour

• Dark red to almost black on young stems, becoming reddish-brown then bright creamy white
• Reddish-orange inner bark turns black

Wood

Texture

• Uniform, odourless

Colour

• Pale

Uses

• Tough pliable bark used for making canoes and ornaments

Size

Height

• In eastern Canada, to 25 m
• In western Canada, western white birch to 35 m, with peeling orange-white bark, and northwestern white birch to 20 m, with light reddish-brown bark

Diameter

• To 40 cm

Maximum age

• 120 years

Tree form

Forest-grown

Trunk

• Slender, often curved
• Usually distinct to midcrown or higher

Crown

• Narrowly oval, open
• Branches ascending

Habitat

Site

• Forest edges, lakeshores, and roadsides
• A wide variety of soils

Light tolerance

• Not shade-tolerant

Associated species

• In pure stands and mixed with various species such as other birches, pines, spruce, hemlocks, poplars, maples, balsam fir, northern red oak, and pin cherry

Range

Across Canada