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Grey Birch
Botanical Name: Betula populifolia (Marsh.)
Other Common Names: Wire Birch, White Birch, Water Birch, Swamp Birch, Birch
| Description | ||
|---|---|---|
| Tree Form | n/a |  |
| Leaves: | Alternate, simple, triangular in outline, coarse and double-toothed, 5cm to 8cm long; dark green and shiny above, pale below |  |
Flowers: | April-May; unisexual, in separate catkins on the same twig; male usually solitary, formed the preceding autumn, female solitary appearing with the leaves | n/a | Fruit: | Autumn; a tiny two-winged nut, slightly narrower than its wings; borne in a drooping or semi-erect cone, about 2cm long, the scales hairy, set nearly at right angles to the cone axis, with broad diverging lateral lobes; shed at maturity | n/a | Twigs: | Very slender, shiny, reddish-brown, densely covered with whitish, wart-like glands. No terminal bud; lateral buds sharp-pointed, somewhat resinous, chestnut-brown, about 6mm long |  |
Bark: | At first reddish-brown; becoming dull chalky white, or almost black at the base of old trees; does not peel easily |  |
Wood: | Light, soft, not strong, fine textured, diffuse-porous; light reddish-brown with paler sapwood | n/a |
The grey birch, common throughout P.E.I., is a small tree, rarely over 10m in height and a diameter of 20cm. The trunk is slender and usually extends undivided to the top of the open, pyramidal crown. The slender branches divide into many fine flexible branchlets that are inclined to droop. A characteristic mark of this birch is the triangular black spot beneath each branch. It is one of the first trees to spring up after a fire, and is found on dry gravelly or sandy soils, however, it sometimes is found on wet soils along the margins of streams and swamps.
Grey birch exists in pure stands but is more commonly mixed with spruce, balsam fir, larch, white birch, and poplar.
Its wood is of little commercial importance being used locally for fuelwood and barrel hoops.
This information has been taken from www.gov.pe.ca