PAPER BIRCH TREES (Betula papyrifera)
The paper birch is a small to medium-sized tree, often with many stems, up to 30 metres tall. In forests, it has a slender trunk that often curves before extending to the narrow, oval-shaped crown. In the open, the crown is pyramid-shaped.
Paper birch grows on a variety of soils, and is abundant on rolling upland terrain and floodplain sites, but it also grows on open slopes, avalanche tracks, swamp margins and in bogs. It doesn’t grow well in shade, and consequently it often occurs in younger forests following a disturbance.
The Birch tree is the national tree of Finland.
The Leaves are triangle- or egg-shaped, about 8 centimetres long, and doubly toothed; dull green on top, paler with a soft down underneath.
The bark is thin, white to reddish-brown, with dark horizontal slits (lenticels). It peels in papery strips, exposing reddish-orange inner bark which will gradually turn black with age.
