Betula pendula
Betula populifolia
bouleau pleureur, European birch, European weeping birch, European white birch, silver birch, weeping birch
bouleau gris, bouleau à feuilles de peuplier, fire birch, gray birch, white birch
of mature trunks and branches creamy to silvery white, smooth, exfoliating as long strands;
lenticels dark, horizontally expanded.
when young dark reddish brown, in maturity becoming grayish white, smooth, close;
lenticels dark, horizontally expanded.
pendulous;
twigs glabrous, usually dotted with small resinous glands.
without taste and odor of wintergreen, glabrous to sparsely pubescent, dotted with small, inconspicuous, 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 broadly ovate to deltate or rhombic with 5–18 pairs of lateral veins, 3–10 × 3–8 cm, base truncate to cuneate, marginally coarsely, irregularly, or sometimes obscurely doubly serrate, apex abruptly long-acuminate;
surfaces abaxially glabrous or sparsely pubescent, often 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.
erect to nearly pendulous, nearly cylindric, 1–2.5(–3) × 0.8–1 cm, shattering with fruits in early fall;
scales adaxially densely pubescent, lobes diverging distal to middle, central lobe cuneate, acute, much shorter than lateral lobes, lateral lobes divergent, broad, irregularly angular.
with wings much broader than body, broadest near center, extended beyond body apically.
with wings much broader than body, broadest near middle, often extended beyond body both apically and basally.
= 28, 56.
= 28.
Betula pendula
Betula populifolia
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 populifolia is an important successional tree on burned, cleared, or abandoned land in the Northeast. It is closely related to Betula pendula Roth of Europe, B. neoalaskana of the Northwest, and several Asian taxa. This species is easily distinguished from the paper birch, with which it is often sympatric, by the long tapering apices of its leaves, its nonpeeling bark, and the characteristic expanded, black triangular patches on the trunks below the branches.
The Iroquois used Betula populifolia medicinally to treat bleeding piles, and the Micmac, to treat infected cuts and as an emetic (D. E. Moerman 1986).
The blue birches (Betula ×caerulea Blanchard) have been variously considered to repres species or a hybrid between B. papyrifera Marshall and B. populifolia Marshall (T. C. Brayshaw 1966) or B. papyrifera and the big blue birch B. caerulea-grandis (M. L. Fernald 1922). Both B. ×caerulea and B. caerulea-grandis have been shown in more recent experimental studies to be of hybrid origin between B. cordifolia Regel and B. populifolia (A. G. Guerriero et al. 1970; W. F. Grant and B. K. Thompson 1975; P. E. DeHond and C. S. Campbell 1989). Individuals of these hybrids combine characteristics of the parents, the infructescence scales and leaves somewhat resembling those of B. populifolia, and the habit and exfoliating reddish bark that of B. cordifolia.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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