Betula pendula
Betula cordifolia
bouleau pleureur, European birch, European weeping birch, European white birch, silver birch, weeping birch
bouleau blanc, bouleau à feuilles cordées, heart-leaf paper birch, heartleaf birch, mountain paper birch, mountain white birch
of mature trunks and branches creamy to silvery white, smooth, exfoliating as long strands;
lenticels dark, horizontally expanded.
of young trunks and branches dark reddish brown, close, in maturity reddish white to reddish tan or bronze, exfoliating in paper-thin sheets;
lenticels dark, horizontally expanded.
pendulous;
twigs glabrous, usually dotted with small resinous glands.
glabrous to sparsely pubescent, often covered with conspicuous, warty, resinous glands.
blade broadly ovate to rhombic with 5–18 pairs of lateral veins, 3–7 × 2.5–5 cm, base cuneate, rarely truncate, margins coarsely and sharply doubly serrate, apex acuminate;
surfaces abaxially glabrous to sparsely pubescent, covered with minute, resinous glands.
blade narrowly ovate to ovate with 9–12 pairs of lateral veins, 6–10(–14) × 4–8 cm, base usually cordate, rarely rounded, margins coarsely or irregularly doubly serrate, apex short-acuminate, abaxially sparsely to moderately pubescent, sometimes velutinous or tomentose along major veins and in vein axils, covered with minute, resinous glands.
erect to nearly pendulous, cylindric, 2–3.5 × 0.6–1 cm, shattering with fruits in fall;
scales adaxially sparsely pubescent, lobes diverging at middle, central lobe obtuse, much shorter than lateral lobes, lateral lobes broad, rounded, extended.
pendulous or nearly pendulous, cylindric, 2.5–5.5 × 0.6–1 cm, shattering with fruits in fall;
scales glabrous to moderately pubescent, lobes diverging proximal to middle, central lobe elongate, obtuse, lateral lobes ascending, shorter and slightly broader than central lobe.
with wings much broader than body, broadest near center, extended beyond body apically.
with wings broader than body, broadest near summit, extended beyond body apically.
= 28, 56.
= 28, 56.
Betula pendula
Betula cordifolia
The Eurasian weeping birch (Betula pendula) is extensively cultivated throughout the temperate range of the flora, and it has been known to persist or to become locally naturalized in several areas, particularly in the Northeast. In vegetative features it resembles B. populifolia Marshall, to which it is closely allied; it can easily be distinguished from the latter by its peeling bark, as well as by its mostly pubescent leaves with somewhat shorter, acuminate apices.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Betula cordifolia has been reported from Connecticut; I have not seen specimens.
In recent years Betula cordifolia has usually been treated as a variety of B. papyrifera, and perhaps it should be considered an ecological race of that species. It differs from B. papyrifera in polyploid level (diploid and tetraploid in B. cordifolia versus tetraploid, pentaploid, and hexaploid in B. papyrifera) and in vegetative characters, including the number of lateral veins of leaves and the color of bark (W. H. Brittain and W. F. Grant 1967; P. E. DeHond and C. S. Campbell 1989). In the Adirondacks, B. cordifolia and B. papyrifera occur in rather distinct ecological zones (B. cordifolia mostly above 800 m and B. papyrifera generally below this elevation). The species does not appear to occur as far west (Iowa) as stated by M. L. Fernald (1950).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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