YELLOW BIRCH
Betula lutea Michx.
Other Name: Gray Birch.
Growth Form: Moderate tree up to 50 feet tall; trunk diameter up to 1½ feet; crown broadly rounded, with small branches.
Bark: Smooth and silvery or grayish, curling into strips, very rough when old.
Twigs: Slender, greenish-brown, smooth, with numerous lenticels; leaf scars alternate, half-elliptical, with 3 bundle traces.
Buds: Pointed, brown, usually somewhat hairy, up to ⅙ inch long.
Leaves: Alternate, simple; blades ovate, pointed at the tip, more or less rounded at the somewhat asymmetrical base, up to 5 inches long, and nearly half as wide, double-toothed, dark green and nearly smooth on the upper surface, paler and usually somewhat hairy on the lower surface; leafstalks yellow, hairy, up to one inch long. The leaves turn yellow in the autumn.
Flowers: Staminate and pistillate flowers borne separately but on the same tree, the staminate crowded in elongated clusters, the pistillate crowded in shorter, thicker clusters, appearing after the leaves have begun to unfold.
Fruit: Several winged nuts, crowded together in erect “cones” up to 1½ inches long.