Betula pendula
Betula nigra
bouleau pleureur, European birch, European weeping birch, European white birch, silver birch, weeping birch
red birch, river birch
of mature trunks and branches creamy to silvery white, smooth, exfoliating as long strands;
lenticels dark, horizontally expanded.
of mature trunks and branches grayish brown, yellowish, reddish, or creamy white, smooth, irregularly shredding and exfoliating in shaggy sheets when mature;
lenticels dark, horizontally expanded.
pendulous;
twigs glabrous, usually dotted with small resinous glands.
without wintergreen taste or odor, glabrous to sparsely pubescent, often with scattered, tiny, 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 rhombic-ovate, with 5–12 pairs of lateral veins, 4–8 × 3–6 cm, base broadly cuneate to truncate, margins coarsely doubly serrate to dentate, apex acuminate;
surfaces abaxially moderately pubescent to velutinous, especially 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, conic or nearly globose, 1.5–3 × 1–2.5 cm, shattering with fruits in late spring or early summer;
scales often persistent into early winter, lobes 3, ascending, branching distal to middle, narrow, elongate, equal to somewhat unequal in length, apex acute.
with wings much broader than body, broadest near center, extended beyond body apically.
with wings narrower than body, usually broadest near summit, not extended beyond body apically.
= 28, 56.
= 28.
Betula pendula
Betula nigra
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 nigra is a large and characteristic floodplain tree. Like several other species of this habitat (e.g., Acer saccharinum Marshall and Ulmus americana Linnaeus), it releases its fruits in early summer; the seeds germinate immediately (at a time when the surrounding land is unlikely to be flooded). The wood of Betula nigra is not in high demand for timber because of its generally poor quality. Cultivars with freely exfoliating bark are commonly cultivated in the Northeast and Midwest.
Native Americans used Betula nigra medicinally to treat dysentery, colds, and milky urine (D. E. Moerman 1986).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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