Betula pendula
Betula kenaica
bouleau pleureur, European birch, European weeping birch, European white birch, silver birch, weeping birch
Kenai birch
of mature trunks and branches creamy to silvery white, smooth, exfoliating as long strands;
lenticels dark, horizontally expanded.
dark reddish brown, sometimes becoming pinkish or grayish white, smooth, in maturity exfoliating in thin sheets;
lenticels dark, horizontally expanded.
pendulous;
twigs glabrous, usually dotted with small resinous glands.
without taste and odor of wintergreen, slightly to moderately pubescent, often with scattered 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 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 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.
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 much broader than body, broadest near center, extended beyond body apically.
with wings as broad as to somewhat narrower than body, broadest near middle, not extended beyond body apically.
= 28, 56.
= 70.
Betula pendula
Betula kenaica
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.)
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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