Flora of North America species comparison

thin, close or exfoliating in thin sheets, becoming thicker and frequently furrowed or broken in age;

lenticels often present, prominent, sometimes becoming greatly expanded horizontally.;

bark and wood strongly tanniferous.

without taste and odor of wintergreen, moderately to densely pubescent, not conspicuously resin-coated, without large, warty, 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.

3-ranked, occasionally nearly 2-ranked.

perianth of 4(–6) sepals, well defined, minute, membranaceous.

2–3 per scale, scales arranged in conelike catkins;

perianth not obvious;

ovules with 1 integument.

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.

1–4 cm, conelike, composed of many scales;

scales either persistent or deciduous with fruits, crowded, small, woody or leathery.

tiny samaras, lateral wings 2, membranous, sometimes reduced to ridges;

pericarp thin, leathery.

with wings not apparent or reduced to narrow ridges.

and branches terete.

twigs and buds often covered with small to large, resinous glands;

pith triangular in cross section.