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Betulaceae
Betula pendula 'Laciniata'
Location: Up against Mary Gates Hall on the South West end of the Building.
Historical Background: This tree was first introduced to North America in the mid-18th century. The wood of this birch is soft, light, and durable making it useful for a range of purposes. A high quality charcoal made from the bark is often used by artists. The leaves of this tree are a good addition to a compost heap because they improve fermentation. The sap is used to make glue and a brown dye is obtained from the inner bark. A tar-oil can be obtained from the bark in the spring. It has fungicidal properties and is used as an insect repellent.
Non-native
Native Range: Europe
Identifying Features: A species one can immediately see is related to the paper birch of earlier in this tour by its white papery bark flecked with horizontal dark lines. This tree has a generally open pyramidal spreading crown with long drooping branches. It has ovate to triangular light green leaves, doubly sawtoothed with 6-9 veins on each. It makes small cone-like bodies (although it is deciduous) which are cylindrical and hang on slender stalks with many 2 winged nutlets.
Identifying Features In Depth:
Form: This tree has a generally open pyramidal spreading crown with long drooping branches. It rises to a height of about 50’ (15m).
Leaves: It has ovate to triangular light green leaves, doubly sawtoothed with 6-9 veins on each. They are a dull green above and more pale below, very sticky when young and on a long stalk. In autumn they turn bright yellow.
Bark: Distinctive in this family, the bark is white and papery bark flecked with horizontal dark lines, peeling away in lateral strips. Twigs are slender and droopy and covered with many resin glands.
Reproductive Bodies: Flowers are tiny and occur in late spring. The males are yellowish with two stamen drooping in catkins, and the females are greenish with upright catkins. These make small cone like bodies (although the tree is deciduous) which are cylindrical and hang on slender stalks with many 2 winged nutlets. Bracts on the cones are 3 lobed at the tip.
Native range of Betula pendula in Eurasia, map compiled by Caudullo et. al 2016. The variety we have on campus here is a cultivated subspecies.
Below is the description found for this species on the original Brockman Memorial Tree Tour:
Historic Tree Tour Information: On the lawn north of the Music building*, 40 feet (12.2 meters) from an eastern white pine, is a Weeping European White Birch. This fine tree drips its slender twigs making a fountain of foliage. Like Scots Pine, this birch is a denizen of northern Europe, and is widely familiar because of its bark. It is easily distinguished from Paper Birch by the darker color and rougher texture of the bark. This individual is infested with black branch galls of dormant buds. It is so common locally that many Seattleites may think it is native here.
The wood of this birch is soft, light, and durable making it useful for a range of purposes. A high quality charcoal made from the bark is often used by artists. The leaves of this tree are a good addition to a compost heap because they improve fermentation. The sap is used to make glue and a brown dye is obtained from the inner bark. A tar-oil can be obtained from the bark in the spring. It fungicidal properties and is used as an insect repellent.
New location form that of the old tour. Original tree was not a laciniota variety.
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