Water birch – Betula occidentalis

Pronunciation: bet-you-luh ok-si-den-tal-iss

Leaf: Alternate, simple, deciduous, ovate to diamond-shaped, ¾ - 2 inches long, yellow-green above and initially sticky but becoming smooth, paler and glandular below. Margins distinctly serrated or doubly serrated, except near the base.

Flower: Species is monoecious; with both sexes borne in aments (catkins), male aments preformed and clustered, female aments usually solitary.

Fruit: A cylindrical papery strobili (cone) that disintegrates at maturity, 1 inch long, seeds are tiny winged nutlets.

Twig: Young twigs are green and sticky, but turn reddish brown and resin-dotted, eventually turn gray-brown and smooth.

Bark: Thin and smooth, but dotted with conspicuous lenticels, almost black when young, but turning reddish brown to copper-colored as it ages, older bark may loosen and curl but does not exfoliate.

Form: A loosely branched deciduous shrub or small tree growing to 40 feet tall and 1 foot in diameter.

Betula occidentalis - water birch Latin (pitch - bitumen is distilled from the bark or Sanskrit "bhurja" (to shine" (bark)) / western - Latin "occidere" (to set, as the sun)

Native Plants of the Intermountain West