Betula pendula
Betula lenta
bouleau pleureur, European birch, European weeping birch, European white birch, silver birch, weeping birch
cherry birch, sweet birch
of mature trunks and branches creamy to silvery white, smooth, exfoliating as long strands;
lenticels dark, horizontally expanded.
of mature trunks and branches light grayish brown to dark brown or nearly black, smooth, close, furrowed and broken into shallow scales with age.
pendulous;
twigs glabrous, usually dotted with small resinous glands.
with taste and odor of wintergreen when crushed, glabrous to sparsely pubescent, usually covered with small 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 oblong-ovate with 12–18 pairs of lateral veins, 5–10 × 3–6 cm, base rounded to cordate, margins finely and sharply serrate or obscurely doubly serrate, teeth fine, sharp, apex acuminate;
surfaces abaxially mostly glabrous, except sparsely pubescent along major veins and in vein axils, often with scattered, 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.
erect, ovoid to nearly globose, 1.5–4 × 1.5–2.5 cm, usually remaining intact for a period after release of fruits in fall;
scales mostly glabrous, lobes diverging at or proximal to middle, central lobe short, cuneate, lateral lobes extended to slightly ascending, longer and broader than central lobe.
with wings much broader than body, broadest near center, extended beyond body apically.
with wings narrower than body, broadest near center, not extended beyond body apically.
= 28, 56.
= 28.
Betula pendula
Betula lenta
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 lenta is a dominant tree in the northern hardwood forests of the northern Appalachians and a valuable source of timber. It was formerly the chief commercial source of wintergreen oil (methyl salicylate), which is distilled from its wood. Betula lenta is most easily separated from B. alleghaniensis by its close bark and the glabrous scales of infructescences.
Native Americans used Betula lenta medicinally to treat dysentery, colds, diarrhea, fevers, soreness, and milky urine, and as a spring tonic.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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