Betula michauxii
Betula kenaica
bouleau de Michaux, Michaux's birch, Newfoundland dwarf birch
Kenai birch
dark reddish brown, sometimes becoming pinkish or grayish white, smooth, in maturity exfoliating in thin sheets;
lenticels dark, horizontally expanded.
without taste and odor of wintergreen, moderately to densely pubescent, not conspicuously resin-coated, without large, warty, resinous glands.
without taste and odor of wintergreen, slightly to moderately pubescent, often with scattered resinous glands.
blade obovate–reniform, with 2–3 pairs of lateral veins, 0.5–1 × 0.5–1.2 cm, base cuneate, margins deeply crenate-dentate, apex broadly rounded to nearly truncate;
surfaces abaxially usually glabrous.
blade ovate to nearly deltate with 2–6 pairs of lateral veins, 4–5(–7.5) × 2.5–4.5 cm, base rounded to cuneate, margins coarsely doubly serrate to dentate, teeth relatively sharp, apex acute to short-acuminate;
surfaces abaxially sparsely to moderately pubescent, especially along major veins and in vein axils, often with scattered resinous glands.
erect, short-cylindric, 0.5–1 × 0.5–0.8 cm, shattering with fruits in fall;
scales unlobed (lateral lobes sometimes present but greatly reduced), glabrous.
erect to nearly pendulous, cylindric, 2–5 × 0.5–1 cm, shattering with fruits in fall;
scales ciliate, lobes diverging at middle, nearly equal in length, strongly divergent.
with wings not apparent or reduced to narrow ridges.
with wings as broad as to somewhat narrower than body, broadest near middle, not extended beyond body apically.
= 70.
Betula michauxii
Betula kenaica
This infrequent dwarf birch is distinguished from Betula nana mostly on the basis of its reduced infructescence scales and wetter habitat (J. J. Furlow 1984), characteristics that are also occasionally noted in B. nana. It perhaps might better be treated as a race of that species; in the absence of thorough study of this complex, however, it seems best to follow the traditional treatment (M. L. Fernald 1950c; J. Rousseau and M. Raymond 1950).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
The relationship of Betula kenaica to other white-barked birches is not well understood, although it and the following species are evidently closely allied to B. papyrifera, from which they have likely been derived. Betula kenaica differs from B. papyrifera primarily in its smaller stature and in its smaller, blunter-tipped, more coarsely and regularly serrate leaves.
Betula ×hornei Butler (= Betula kenaica W. H. Evans × B. nana Linnaeus), variously intermediate between its parents, is common throughout the range of B. kenaica (which is mostly overlapped by that of B. nana).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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