BETULACEAE
Sweet Birch. Black Birch. Cherry Birch
Betula lenta L.[F]
HABIT.—A medium-sized tree 70-80 feet high, with a trunk diameter of 1-3 feet; slender, wide-spreading, pendulous branches, forming a narrow, rounded, open crown.
LEAVES.—Alternate in pairs, simple, 3-4 inches long and one-half as broad; outline variable, ovate to oblong-ovate; sharply doubly serrate, with slender, incurved teeth; dull, dark green above, light yellow-green beneath; petioles short, stout, hairy, deeply grooved above; aromatic.
FLOWERS.—April, before the leaves; monoecious; the staminate catkins 3-4 inches long, slender, pendent, yellowish; the pistillate catkins 1/2-3/4 inch long, erect or suberect, greenish.
FRUIT.—Ripens in autumn; sessile, glabrous, erect strobiles, 1-1-1/2 inches long and half as thick; scales glabrous; nuts slightly broader than their wings.
WINTER-BUDS.—Terminal bud absent; lateral buds about 1/4 inch long, conical, sharp-pointed, red-brown, divergent.
BARK.—Twigs light green, becoming lustrous, red-brown in their first winter; very dark on old trunks, cleaving off in thick, irregular plates. Resembles bark of Black Cherry. Inner bark aromatic, spicy.