Tree of the Week: January 30th, 2024

Tree of the Week: January 30th, 2024

This week, ArborNote’s Tree of the Week is the River Birch (Betula nigra)! The River Birch is native to the Eastern United States and is one of the few heat-tolerant birches in a family of mostly cold-weather trees. It is often found in floodplains and swamps, giving it its common name as it does in moist, acidic, sandy, or rocky soil. The bark on the trunk varies a lot among individual plants, ranging in color from silvery gray-brown to pinkish-brown when young, but always with darker, narrow, longitudinal lenticels. In the winter, the bark is either scaly for mature trees or peels off in curly papery sheets for young trees. Another appealing feature is the shimmering contrast when the leaves flutter in the wind, revealing a lower leaf surface of a different color than the upper surface!

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