Betula nigra (River Birch or Water Birch) is a species of birch native to the eastern United States from New Hampshire west to southern Minnesota and south to northern Florida and east Texas. It is most often found on sandbars and islands in streams. It also grows on stream banks, lakeshores, and floodplains. These trees usually form their own thickets.
A fast-growing deciduous (loses its leaves) tree, it attains a height of 80, rarely to 100’, with a trunk up to 2', rarely 5’, diameter. It often has multiple trunks. You can see an example of one nearing maturity in the Community Garden; it is at the end near Artspace right on Terry Street.
The attractive bark is variable, usually dark gray-brown to pinkish-brown and scaly, but in some individuals smooth and creamy pinkish-white, exfoliating (peeling) in curly papery sheets. The older the tree, the darker the bark.
River Birch Bark
The twigs are smooth (glabrous) or thinly hairy and odorless when scraped. The leaves are alternate, ovate, 1.5–3” long and 1.2-2.4” broad, with a double serrated (double toothed, meaning there are large teeth on top of smaller teeth) margin and five to twelve pairs of veins.
River Birch Leaves
River Birch has two different flowers: male and female. Male flowers grow in the fall. These catkins are reddish-brown and stay on the tree through the winter. In early spring these catkins bloom and produce lots of pollen. Female catkins grow in the spring and get wind-pollinated. The female catkins then turn into fruit, a cone filled with hairy seeds that travel by wind and water. The fruit is unusual among birches in maturing in late spring; it is composed of numerous tiny winged seeds packed between the catkin bracts.
Male Catkins Above a Female Catkin
River Birch Fruit
While its native habitat is wet ground, it will grow on higher land, and its bark is quite distinctive, making it a favored ornamental tree for landscape use. A number of cultivars with much whiter bark than the normal wild type have been selected for garden planting, including 'Heritage' and 'Dura Heat'; these are notable as the only white-barked birches resistant to the bronze birch borer Agrilus anxius.
Other trees and plants found growing with River Birch include: American Sycamore, Red Maple, Silver Maple, Black Willow, American Hornbeam, Yellow Poplar, Blackgum, Black Cherry, American Elm, Sugar Maple, Boxelder, Mockernut Hickory, American Beech, ash, Sweetgum, Pin Oak, American Basswood, and Buttonbush.
Birch seeds are eaten by many birds, including Carolina Chickadee and Wild Turkey. Voles and shrews also eat seeds.
White-tailed Deer eat leaves and twigs. Beavers eat bark. Rabbits eat seedlings (baby trees).
Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers drill holes for birch sap. Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, squirrels, and various insects drink sap as well.
Native Americans used the boiled sap as a sweetener similar to maple syrup and the inner bark as a survival food. It is usually too contorted and knotty to be of value as a timber tree, but is used for making children's toys and artificial limbs because of its strength. It is also used for local enterprises such as the manufacture of inexpensive furniture, basket hoops, and turned articles. Because of its tolerance to acid soils, river birch has been used successfully in strip mine reclamation and erosion control.
Plant Me, Please!
PS I've been checking the planting each day. So far the resident deer have not bothered any of the trees or shrubs. Keeping fingers crossed!
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