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BIRCH VIEW NURSING CENTER (BIRCH TREE, MO) Detailed Hospital Profile hospital-data.com | Birch? Sweet Birch, Sweet spabodyworkmarket.com |
Betula papyrifera (Paper Birch, also known as American White Birch and Canoe Birch) is a species of birch native to northern North America.
[edit] DescriptionIt is a medium-sized deciduous tree reaching 20 m tall (exceptionally to 35 m) with a trunk up to 80 cm diameter. The bark is white, commonly brightly so, flaking in fine horizontal strips, and often with small black marks and scars. In individuals younger than five years, the bark appears brown with white lenticels, making the tree much harder to distinguish from other trees. The leaves are alternate, ovate, 5–12 cm long and 4–9 cm broad, with a doubly serrate margin. The leaf buds are conical and small. They are green-colored with brown edges. The flowers are wind-pollinated catkins 3–8 cm long growing from the tips of twigs. The fruit matures in the fall. The mature fruit is composed of numerous tiny winged seeds packed between the catkin bracts. They drop between September and spring. "Slender branches ending in very fine branchlets; becoming in old range a long , branchless trunk with a broad, open crown composed of a few large limbs ascending at an acute angle, with almost horizontal branches. Michigan Big Tree: girth 559 cm (220 in. 18.3 ft), diameter 178 cm (70 in), height 32.6 m (107 ft), Cheboygan Co. Bark Thin; smooth and often dark reddish brown on young trunks, becoming creamy white on outer surface of the trunk and large branches , bright orange on the inner surface, separating freely into thin, papery layers; highly flammable; becoming furrowed and almost black near the ground. Lenticels conspicuous, horizontally enlongated. Trunk turns dark brownish black when bark is removed. Leaves Alternate, simple solitary on long shoots, in 3s on short, spur shoots of older branches, blades 5-8 cm long, 3-5 cm wide; ovate or triangular; coarsely, more or less doubly serrate except for rounded, entire base; thick and firm; dark green above, lighter beneathe, turning bright yellow in autumn; early (preformed) leaves becoming glabrous, late (neoformed) leaves remain hairy, especially in vein axils; 9 or fewer veins per left side ; petioles stout, yellow, glabrous or pubescent. Twigs Slender, dull red, becoming lustrous, orange brow, no wintergreen taste of odor. Winter Buds Terminal bud absent; end and lateral buds 5-7 mm long, narrow-ovoid, acute, flattish; bud scales brown near the tip greenish near the base, often gummy, usually divergent. Flowers April-May, before or with the leaves; male catkins clustered or in pairs, 7-10 cm long, slender pendent, brownish; female catkins 3-4 cm long , slender, erect or spreading, greenish; styles bright red. Trees monoecious. Wind-pollinated. Fruit Samara, elliptical to oval, narrower than its wide wings, glabrous; August-September ; borne in long-stalked, cylindrical glabrous, dropping catkins, 3-4 cm long, disintegrating rapidly when ripe; bracts cross-shaped with 2 lobes pointing away from the short middle lobe, hairy on margin" (Michigan Trees, Barnes, Wagner, 2008). [edit] DistributionBetula papyrifera has a wide range. It is found in interior (var. humilus) and southcentral (var. kenaica) Alaska and in all provinces and territories of Canada, except Nunavut, as well as the northern continental United States, south to Pennsylvania and Washington, with small isolated populations further south in mountains to North Carolina and Colorado. The most southerly stand in the Western United States is located in Lost Gulch in the City of Boulder Mountain Parks, an isolated Pleistocene relict that most likely reflects the southern reach of boreal vegetation into the area during the last Ice Ages.[1] "Primarily a boreal forest ree reaching one part of its southernmost limit in southern michigan, extending south into the Appalahian Mountains as far as Porter Creek Cove in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park of Tennessee" (Michigan Trees, Barnes, Wagner, 2008). [edit] EcologyBetula papyrifera is a pioneer species; for example, it is frequently an early invader after fire in Black Spruce Boreal forests.[2] B. papyrifera requires high nutrients and sun exposure. The bark is highly weather-resistant. Often, the wood of a downed paper birch will rot away leaving the hollow bark intact.[3] Birch bark is a winter staple food for moose. The nutritional quality is poor, but is important to wintering moose because of its sheer abundance. Although white-tailed deer consider Birch a "secondary-choice food", it is an important dietary component. In Minnesota, white-tailed deer eat considerable amounts of paper birch leaves in the fall. Snowshoe hares browse paper birch seedlings, porcupines feed on the inner bark and mice eat the seeds. The leaves of the Paper Birch serve as food for various Lepidoptera. [edit] ConservationIt is considered vulnerable in Indiana, imperiled in Illinois, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming, and critically imperiled in Colorado and Tennessee. When used in landscape planting, it should not be planted near black walnut as the chemical juglone, exuded from the roots of black walnut, is very toxic to white birch. 'Habitat "Characteristic of burned-over and cutover areas of great variety of acidic or basic soils, and with water-table conditions from well drained forest soils and dunes to somewhat poorly drained; margins of lakes, streams, seepages, swamps. Associated with a great variety of species; among the most common are pines, oaks, and aspens" (Michigan Trees, Barnes, Wagner, 2008). [edit] Uses Betula papyrifera has a soft, yet moderately heavy, white wood. It makes excellent high yielding fire wood if seasoned properly] its bark is an excellent fire starter, burning at high temperatures even when wet. While paper birch does not have a very high overall economic value, it is used in furniture, flooring, and Oriented Strand Board. . The sap is boiled down to produce birch syrup. Its name reflects the use of the tree's bark, primarily by Native Americans, for a writing material.[citation needed] The bark is also used to create a durable waterproof layer in the construction of sod-roofed houses.[3] [edit] CultureBetula papyrifera is the Provincial tree of Saskatchewan and the State tree of New Hampshire. [edit] References
[edit] External links
Categories: Betula | Trees of the United States | Trees of Alaska | Trees of Michigan | Flora of Massachusetts | Trees of Canada | Trees of the Northwestern United States | Trees of Northeastern United States | Trees of the Plains-Midwest (United States) | Trees of Idaho | Trees of continental subarctic climate | Trees of humid continental climate | Trees of Saskatchewan | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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