Alternate name: Red Birch

Family: Betulaceae, Birch view all from this family

Description Often slightly leaning and forked tree with irregular, spreading crown.
Height: 40-80' (12-24 m).
Diameter: 1-2' (0.3-0.6 m).
Leaves: 1 1/2-3" (4-7.5 cm) long, 1-2 1/4" (2.5-6 cm) wide. Ovate or nearly 4-sided; coarsely doubly saw-toothed or slightly lobed; usually with 7-9 veins on each side. Shiny dark green above, whitish and usually hairy beneath; turning dull yellow in autumn.
Bark: shiny pinkish-brown or silvery-gray; separating into papery scales; becoming thick, fissured, and shaggy.
Twigs: reddish-brown, slender, hairy.
Flowers: tiny; in early spring. Male yellowish, with 2 stamens, many in long drooping catkins near tip of twigs. Female greenish, in short upright catkins back of tip of same twig.
Cones: 1-1 1/2" (2.5-4 cm) long; cylindrical, brownish, upright, short-stalked; with many hairy scales and hairy 2-winged nutlets; maturing in late spring or early summer.

Habitat Wet soil of stream banks, lakes, swamps, and flood plains; with other hardwoods.

Range Sw. Connecticut south to n. Florida, west to e. Texas, and north to se. Minnesota; local in Massachusetts and s. New Hampshire; to 1000' (305 m); to 2500' (762 m) in southern Appalachians.

Discussion This is the southernmost New World birch and the only birch that occurs at low altitudes in the southeastern United States. Its ability to thrive on moist sites makes it useful for erosion control.