How to Identify White Birch Trees
The white birch, known to many as the paper birch and to some as the canoe birch, is a tree of the northern forests of North America. The Native Americans used white birch bark to make canoes, and the white birch is one of the most sought-after ornamental and landscaping trees today. The twigs and leaves constitute an important browse food for such large mammals as moose and deer, and white birch has other uses such as in furniture and cabinet making. You will have little trouble identifying this beautiful tree once you have knowledge of its characteristics. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
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Check a range map to ascertain if white birch grows where you live. In the wild, the tree occurs in the northern tier of states in the United States and across most of Canada and into Alaska.
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Find a white birch in the woods by looking for its outstanding feature---its bark. The species acquired its name from the white bark that develops as the tree matures. The saplings possess a reddish-brown bark that becomes much thinner and white as time goes on.
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Observe the bark's trait of separating into long horizontal strips that curl up at both ends. You would have no problem peeling these strips off the tree in large sheets the way the Native Americans would when making their canoes.
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Search for white birch in an area of forest that recently experienced a fire. The tree rapidly reseeds such places and quickly sprouts up. White birch will also grow in what botanists describe as "pure stands" of trees, with hundreds of white birches growing in one area.
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Note the leaves of a white birch and check out their size and shape. The oval leaf of a white birch has a rounded base and then tapers on the other end to a point. It will have a length of 2 to 3 inches and some are as wide as 2 inches at their base.
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Identify a white birch by its size. Some grow as tall as 80 feet and the typical white birch has a trunk diameter in the 10- to 12-inch range, but some with 30-inch-wide trunks occur.
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Watch for the catkins that arise on a white birch in the spring months. These are tassel-like structures that hang down and develop the seeds of the white birch. White birch catkins are about 4 inches long and the female catkins will show up in April even before the leaves have fully opened up.
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