Betula pumila |
Betula glandulosa |
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bog birch |
resin birch |
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Habit | Shrubs to 6 m; bark dark brown with pale lenticels, dull, not exfoliating. | Shrubs to 3 m; bark dark brown with pale lenticels, dull, not exfoliating. |
Twigs | ascending, finely puberulent with hairs to 0.1 mm and spreading hairs ~0.3–0.4 mm; when young dry or glutinous, with scattered resin-blisters. |
ascending, glabrous or puberulent with spreading hairs to 0.1 mm; dry or rarely glutinous near apex, with few to many resin-blisters. |
Leaves | blades obovate, elliptic, or almost circular, 22–40 × 15–31 mm, green above, light green beneath; firm but flexible, bases obtuse or rounded; margins crenate from base to tip with 14–19 strong rounded crenations on each margin, usually all approximately same size, 1–2 mm; secondary veins obscure, 4–6 on each side; tips broadly obtuse or rounded; surfaces glabrous; petioles 4–7 mm, glabrous or puberulent. |
blades elliptic to almost circular, 15–28 × 12–21 mm (on fertile branches; up to 37 × 31 mm on sterile branches), green above, light green beneath; firm but flexible, bases obtuse or rounded (seldom broadly acute); margins crenate; crenations obtuse or rounded, 8–15 on a side, usually all approximately same size; ~1 mm; secondary veins 3–4(5) on each side; tips broadly rounded; surfaces abaxially glabrous or both sides vernicose; petioles 3–7 mm, glabrous. |
Fruits | very narrowly winged. |
narrowly winged. |
Pistillate catkins | 15–23 mm; bracts with lateral lobes often shorter and broader than middle lobe. |
15–24 mm; bracts with a long; narrow central lobe and short; broad lateral lobes. |
Betula pumila |
Betula glandulosa |
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Distribution | ||
Discussion | Boggy margins of lakes. Flowering May–Jun. 0–1300 m. Casc, ECas, WV. CA, ID, WA; north to Yukon, east to Newfoundland. Native. Many specimens of B. pumila from eastern North America have longer, denser pubescence on the twigs and few or no glandular blisters. Our western plants, with sparser pubescence and more numerous glands, are sometimes separated as a distinct taxon (B. hallii or B. pumila var. glandulifera; Dugle 1966; Hitchcock & Cronquist 1964), but the two forms intergrade. Furlow (1997) argues against recognizing segregate taxa. |
Wet meadows, bottomlands, swamps, streambanks. Flowering May–Jul. 300–2200 m. BR, BW, Casc, ECas, Lava. CA, ID, WA; north to AK, east to Greenland. Native. Betula glandulosa and B. pumila are morphologically similar and difficult to distinguish. Elsewhere in North America, B. glandulosa is diploid and B. pumila is tetraploid, but no chromosome counts have been made from the Pacific Slope populations. Dugle (1966) has reported B. glandulosa × B. pumila (B. × sargentii) and B. glandulosa × B. occidentalis (B. × eastwoodiae) from other parts of western North America, but neither hybrid has been confirmed from Oregon. |
Source | Flora of Oregon, volume 2, page 383 Alan Whittemore |
Flora of Oregon, volume 2, page 382 Alan Whittemore |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Betula glandulosa var. hallii, Betula pumila var. glandulifera | Betula glandulosa var. glandulosa |
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