Leaves ovate, long-pointed, broadly or narrowly concave-cuneate at the entire often unequal base, sharply mostly doubly serrate above with straight or incurved glandular often apiculate teeth, covered above when they unfold with pale deciduous glands, at maturity dull bluish green above, pale yellow-green below, and sparingly villose along the under side of the slender yellow midrib and primary veins, 2′—2½′ long, 1′—1½′ wide; petioles slender, ¾′—1¼′ long, yellow more or less deeply tinged with red. Flowers: staminate aments usually in pairs, or singly or in 3’s, 1¼′—2′ long, about 3/16′ thick, with ovate rounded short-pointed scales; pistillate aments slender, about ⅓′ long, with acuminate pale green much reflexed scales. Fruit: strobiles cylindric, pubescent, slightly narrowed at the obtuse apex, about 1′ long and ¼′ thick, pendant on slender peduncles ¼′—½′ in length; nut ellipsoidal, much narrower than its broad wing.
A tree, rarely more than 30° high, with a trunk 8′—10′ in diameter, small ascending finally spreading branches, and slender branchlets marked by numerous small raised pale lenticels, purplish and sparingly villose when they first appear, soon glabrous, becoming bright red-brown; often forming clumps of several stems. Bark thin, white tinged with rose, lustrous, not readily separable into layers, the inner bark light orange color.
Distribution. Moist slopes, Stratton and Windham, Windham County, Vermont, at altitudes of about 1800° (W. H. Blanchard), Haystack Mountain, Aroostook County, Maine (M. L. Fernald); the American representative of the European Betula pendula Roth., and probably widely distributed over the hills of northern New England and eastern Canada. Perhaps with its variety best considered a natural hybrid between B. papyrifera and B. populifolia.
Apparently passing into a form with larger leaves often rounded and truncate at the broad base, 3′—3½′ long and 2′ wide, stouter staminate aments, and strobiles frequently 1½′ long and ½′ thick (var. Blanchardii Sarg. fig. 198 A). This under favorable conditions is a tree 60°—70° high, with a trunk 18′ in diameter; common with Betula cœrulea at Windham and Stratton, Vermont (W. H. Blanchard), and on a hill near the coast in Washington County, Maine (M. L. Fernald).
6. [Betula papyrifera] Marsh. Canoe Birch. Paper Birch.
Leaves ovate, acute or acuminate with a short broad point, coarsely usually doubly and often very irregularly serrate except at the rounded abruptly cuneate or gradually narrowed base, bright green, glandular-resinous, pubescent and clothed below on the midrib and primary veins and on the petioles with long white hairs when they unfold, at maturity thick and firm, dull dark green and glandless or rarely glandular on the upper surface, light yellow-green and glabrous or puberulous, with small tufts of pale hairs in the axils of the primary veins and covered with many black glands on the lower surface, 2′—3′ long, 1½′—2′ wide, with a slender yellow midrib marked, like the remote primary veins, with minute black glands, turning light clear yellow in the autumn; petioles stout, yellow, glandular, glabrous or pubescent, ½′—¾′ long; stipules ovate, acute, ciliate on the margins with pale hairs, light green. Flowers: staminate aments clustered during the winter, ¾′—1¼′ long, about ⅛′ thick, with ovate, acute scales light brown below the middle, dark red-brown above it, becoming 3½′—4′ long, and about ⅓′ thick; pistillate aments 1′—1¼′ long, about 1/16′ thick, with light green lanceolate scales long-pointed and acute or rounded at apex; styles bright red. Fruit: strobiles cylindric, glabrous, about 1½′ long and ⅓′ thick, hanging on slender stalks, their scales very rarely entire (var. elobata Sarg.); nut ellipsoidal, about 1/16′ long, much narrower than its thin wing.
A tree, usually 60°—70° tall, with a trunk 2°—3° in diameter, becoming in old age, or when crowded by other trees, branchless below and supporting a narrow open head of short pendulous branches, and branchlets at first light green, slightly viscid, marked by scattered orange-colored oblong lenticels and covered with long pale hairs, dark orange color and glabrous or pubescent during the summer, becoming dull red in their first winter, gradually growing dark orange-brown, lustrous for four or five years and ultimately covered with the white papery bark of older branches. Winter-buds obovoid, acute, about ¼′ long, pubescent below the middle and coated with resinous gum at midsummer, dark chestnut-brown, glabrous and slightly resinous during the winter, their inner scales becoming strap-shaped, rounded at apex, about ½′ long and ⅛′ wide. Bark on young trunks and large limbs thin, creamy white or rarely bronze color or orange-brown and lustrous on the outer surface, bright orange color on the inner, marked by long narrow slightly darker colored raised lenticels, separating into thin papery layers, pale orange color when first exposed to the light, becoming on old trunks for a few feet above the ground sometimes ½′ thick, dull brown or nearly black, sharply and irregularly furrowed and broken on the surface into thick closely appressed scales. Wood light, strong, hard, tough, very close-grained, light brown tinged with red, with thick nearly white sapwood; largely used for spools, shoe-lasts, pegs, and in turnery, the manufacture of wood-pulp, and for fuel. The tough resinous durable bark impervious to water is used by all the northern Indians to cover their canoes and for baskets, bags, drinking-cups, and other small articles, and often to cover their wigwams in winter.
Distribution. Rich wooded slopes and the borders of streams, lakes, and swamps scattered through forests of other trees; Labrador to the southern shores of Hudson’s Bay, and southward to Long Island, New York, northern Pennsylvania, central Michigan, northern Wisconsin, northern-central Iowa, eastern Nebraska, North and South Dakota and Wyoming; common in the maritime provinces of Canada and North of the Great Lakes, and in northern New England and New York; small and comparatively rare in the coast region of southern New England and southward; on the highest mountains of New England and northward the var. minor S. Wats and Cov. is common as a small shrub.
Often planted in the northeastern states as an ornamental tree.