Birches can be recover chiefly in the cooler parts of the Northern Hemisphere . close to 100 species of tree and shrubs are in the Birch family ( Betulaceae ) , and 40 have it away species of birch rod ( Betula ) . Birches have been used for many things : its wood for locker qualification , or the barque for basket weaving . identify birch trees by their leaves is one major means to tell them apart .

Paper Birch (Betula Papyrifera)

Paper birch are the most wide circulate metal money of birch tree , traverse the full breadth of the northerly United States , and the total breadth of Canada into Alaska , except for the high Arctic .

Besides its newspaper - comparable barque that shed in sheets – which can in reality be used in a interchangeable manner to parchment – you may identify it by the ellipse to ovate leaf . They grow 2 - 3 inches long and 1 1/2 to 2 inches wide . They have a orotund base , point hint , and double - jaggy margin .

River Birch

The river birch rod ( Betula nigra ) is found in an unorthodox range along the East Coast from Massachusetts to South Carolina and into the Midwest . Old trunk uprise a grey - Shirley Temple , scaly coloring . It is also normally found along stream and is potential to be the birch you have found if you ’re in a low-pitched elevation of the southern United States .

The leaves are on an irregular basis oval and produce 1 1/2 to 3 column inch long and 1 - 2 inches wide . They have coarse , doubled - toothed margins and are hairy on the stems and underside of the stout midrib .

Water Birch

Not to be confused with the river birch , the water birch tree ( Betula occidentalis ) is a smaller Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree , growing 20 - 25 substructure tall versus the stock 80 - groundwork summit of the paper and river birches . It is found in westerly and Pacific northwesterly states and into share of Alberta , Canada and British Columbia .

The water birch tree forms often dense thickets around streams , which is where it gets its name . The leave-taking are very similar in shape to the newspaper birch rod but are smaller . They are not as slim looking as a paper birch folio . They originate 1 - 2 inch farsighted and 3/4 in to 1 inch astray . The subdivision sometimes open into a crown and droop .

Yellow Birch

The yellow birch ( Betula alleghaniensis ) can often be false for the paper birch tree to the untrained eye . The leaf are standardized , but longer and narrower , which perhaps mimics the structure of the entire tree diagram in compare . The leave grow 3 – 4 1/2 column inch long and 1 1/2 – 2 inches wide . At the base , they are rounded and heart - shaped .

The stems of the leaf can be slightly haired or fuzzy , and there are tufts of fine hair in axils of nervure on the undersurface . The cone ( called strobles ) that are get on the terminal of outgrowth right along the leaves are ovoid , erect , and shed their scales slowly in comparison to the newspaper birch conoid , which are more cylindrical and shed tight ) .

Sweet Birch

be intimate by many for its strong checkerberry fragrance and flavor when the twigs are leach aside , the sweet birch ( Betula lenta ) also known as the Black Birch or Cherry Birch , grows to about 60 foot tall and has barque that does n’t flake . Its leaves are ovate to oblong in cast and get 2 1/2 – 5 inches retentive and 1 1/2 to 2 inch wide . The leave have a narrowing apex , commonly a heart - shaped alkali and a single tooth margin . The stems are hairy .

Gray Birch

The leaves of the gray birch rod ( Betula populifolia ) are the most distinct of all the birch species here mentioned . They are triangular in shape and develop 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 inch longsighted and have vulgar double tooth margins . The barque looks very standardised in color and texture to newspaper birch but it does n’t strip . They grow to be about 30 feet tall and in a very small-scale area compared to other birch rod , in the northeast United States from the New Jersey country up into Newfoundland , Canada .

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