Betula papyrifera Marshall
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Authority
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.
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Family
Betulaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Usually a small to middle-sized tree, occasionally to 30 m, often slightly leaning rather than strictly erect; bark white or nearly so, with horizontal (often semilunate) black marks about the branches, easily separable into thin layers, the peeled plates showing salmon-pink on the inside; lvs ovate, 5–10 cm, acuminate, sharply serrate or doubly serrate, cuneate to rounded at base, glabrous above, very sparsely pubescent beneath, usually only along the veins or in the vein-axils; fruiting catkins 3–5 cm; scales 3.9–6.2 mm, two-thirds to fully as wide, the lateral lobes broadly falcate-obovate, divergent, the middle lobe tapering; frs oblate, deeply retuse, broadly winged, 1.8–3.4 × 2.7–5 mm, the body 0.9–1.5 mm wide; mostly polyploid, often 2n=70. Seral in moist or dry soil after fire or other disturbance; Lab. to Alas., s. to N.J., W.Va., n. Ind., and ne. Io. Becoming very dwarf at and above timberline in the White Mts. of N.H. and perhaps elsewhere. Most of our plants are var. papyrifera, as described above. The well marked but wholly confluent var. cordifolia is separately described.
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Common Names
white birch, paper-birch