Birch Tree Identification: Bark, Leaves and Species

A birch has alternate, oval to triangular leaves with doubly toothed edges (small teeth on larger teeth), and bark that is usually thin and marked with lenticels. Paper birch, the best-known species, is described with doubly serrated leaves and relatively sharp teeth in Wikipedia's species account, and the same double teeth appear in gray and silver birch.

Bark is what most people notice first, but not every birch is white. Nature Groupie's comparison of five eastern birches shows the range: white and peeling (paper), white and tight (gray), yellow to bronze and shredded (yellow), dark and smooth (black), and pink-brown and shaggy (river). So check the leaf edge as well as the color.

• Paper birch (Betula papyrifera): white bark that often peels in paper-like layers; young trees under about five years have brown-red bark with white lenticels, which confuses people. Leaves 4 to 10 cm, typically 20 m (66 ft) tall. Wikipedia gives its range as mostly Canada and the far northern US, with isolated patches farther south.
• Gray birch (Betula populifolia): grayish-white bark that does not peel as readily as paper birch, with black triangular patches at the base of branches. Triangular leaves 2.5 to 3 inches long with long tapering tips. A smaller tree, 20 to 30 feet, and a pioneer on disturbed ground in the Northeast.
• Yellow birch (Betula alleghaniensis): Nature Groupie describes yellow or bronze bark peeling like paper birch but in shredded-looking curls, on a tree often larger than other birches.
• Black or sweet birch (Betula lenta): bark does not peel and becomes dark and plated with age; Wikipedia notes it is sometimes mistaken for a cherry. Scrape a twig: a strong wintergreen smell (from methyl salicylate) confirms it.
• River birch (Betula nigra): the Missouri Department of Conservation describes reddish-brown or grayish bark peeling in conspicuous papery strips, leaves 1.5 to 3.5 inches long, and heights to 80 feet on stream banks and bottomlands.
• European white or silver birch (Betula pendula): planted in yards; white bark with black fissures on older trees and slender, often drooping twigs. Wikipedia lists it as invasive in Kentucky, Maryland, Washington and Wisconsin.

Aspen is the tree most often mistaken for a birch, because both have pale bark. Two checks settle it:

• Leaves. Quaking aspen leaves are nearly circular, 4 to 6 cm across, with small rounded teeth, on a flattened leaf stalk 3 to 7 cm long that makes them tremble in wind (Wikipedia). Birch leaves are oval to triangular with sharp double teeth on round stalks.
• Bark. Aspen bark is smooth, whitish or light green when young, and marked with thick black horizontal scars and knots, but it does not peel. Paper birch peels in sheets.

In winter, look at the ground for fallen leaves; the round aspen leaf is unmistakable.

Take the bark at chest height in daylight, a close-up of one leaf edge to show the double teeth, and a twig with catkins if present. For a dark-barked birch, scrape a twig and smell it before you leave; a photo cannot capture wintergreen. NatureLens gives free scans every day, so you can photograph the plant or sign and get a suggested name in seconds, then confirm it with the checks on this page.