PAPER BIRCH
Betula papyrifera Marsh.
Other Name: Canoe Birch.
Growth Form: Medium tree up to 70 feet tall; trunk diameter up to 2 feet; crown broadly rounded, irregular, with many slender branches.
Bark: Thin and white or creamy, splitting at maturity into papery layers, becoming very dark and furrowed near the base of the trunk at maturity.
Twigs: Slender, zigzag, reddish-brown to blackish, more or less hairy; leaf scars alternate, half-elliptical, with 3 bundle traces.
Buds: Slender, pointed, dark brown, smooth or nearly so, up to one-fourth inch long.
Leaves: Alternate, simple; blades ovate, pointed at the tip, more or less rounded at the base, up to 3 inches long, over half as wide, coarsely toothed, dark green and smooth on the upper surface, yellow-green and smooth or somewhat hairy on the lower surface and with black dots on the lower surface; leafstalks yellow, smooth or finely hairy, up to 1 inch long. The leaves turn yellow in the autumn.
Flowers: Staminate and pistillate borne separately on the same tree, developing in the autumn and present on the tree during the winter, the staminate crowded into slender spikes up to 4 inches long, the pistillate crowded into thicker spikes up to 1¼ inches long, the flowers minute, without petals.
Fruit: Cone-like, cylindrical, drooping, composed of many minute seeds attached to 3-lobed wings.