Paper Birch (Betula papyrifera)

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Paper Birch (Betula papyrifera)

Paper Birch is considered by many (including us) to be one of the most attractive tree species in North America. The species is familiar to nearly everyone because of its white bark and the paper like strips of bark use in the construction of canoes in times gone by. The species is widely found in the northern half of North America and is one of the dominant deciduous trees of the Northern Boreal Forest.

Characteristic Features: The bark is pure or creamy white with black patches and bands. The bark separates into papery strips. The leaves are ovate with a pointed apex and the margin of the leaf is toothed. The color of the leaf is yellow-green both above and below. Male and female flowers are borne in catkins and the seed is a small 2-winged nutlet.

Similar Species: Quaking Aspen is another dominant deciduous tree of the Northern Boreal Forest and shares white colored bark with the Paper Birch Aspen. The bark of Paper Birch, however peals in papery strips. The leaves of Paper Birch are more elongate than those of Quaking Aspen and are yellow-green on both surfaces. The leaves of Quaking Aspen are shiny green above and dull green below. The leafstalks of Quaking Aspen are flattened.

Habitat: Paper birch is found primarily on moist soils and is a common successional species of the Northern Boreal Forest.

Distribution: The range of paper birch closely follows the northern limit of tree growth from Newfoundland and Labrador west across the continent into northwest Alaska; southeast from Kodiak Island in Alaska to British Columbia and Washington; east in the mountains of northeast Oregon, northern Idaho, and western Montana with scattered outliers in the northern Great Plains of Canada, Montana, North Dakota, the Black Hills of South Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska, and the Front Range of Colorado; east in Minnesota and Iowa, through the Great Lakes region into New England. Paper birch also extends down the Appalachian Mountains from central New York to western North Carolina.