Birches are pale-barked trees of open and disturbed ground with alternate, simple leaves.
Identifying birch
Scientific name: Betula
How to recognise it
- Alternate leaves, oval or triangular with a double-toothed edge.
- Bark often peels in thin papery layers, white on paper birch, and has horizontal lenticels.
- Drooping male catkins in spring and upright female catkins that break apart into tiny winged seeds.
- Twigs that are slender and often shiny.
Common birches
- Paper birch (Betula papyrifera): chalk-white bark peeling in sheets; a tree of the north.
- River birch (B. nigra): salmon to cinnamon bark peeling in ragged curls; grows in wet ground.
- Yellow birch (B. alleghaniensis): bronze-yellow bark peeling in thin curls; twigs smell of wintergreen.
- Silver birch (B. pendula): the common birch of Britain, with white bark and diamond-shaped black fissures at the base.
Birch or aspen?
Birches have double-toothed, pointed leaves and peeling bark with dark lenticels. Aspens have rounder leaves on flattened stalks and smooth bark with dark scars.
Uses
Paper birch bark was used by Indigenous peoples of the north for canoes and containers. Birch sap can be tapped in spring for syrup. Birch wood is used for plywood, furniture and flooring.