Native Plant Database

Betula lenta L.

Sweet birch, Cherry birch, Black birch, Mahogany birch

Betulaceae (Birch Family)

Sweet birch or cherry birch is a 50-75 ft. tree with brownish-black, cherry-like, scaly bark and reddish-brown stems. Conical in youth, the deciduous tree becomes ovoid to globular in maturity. Aromatic tree with rounded crown of spreading branches and odor of wintergreen in crushed twigs and foliage. Fall color is golden-yellow and the flower is a catkin that appears before leaf emergence.

Birch oil, or oil of wintergreen, used to flavor medicines and candy, was once obtained from the bark and wood of young trees. That wasteful process has been replaced by the manufacture of the same oil from wood alcohol and salicylic acid. The trees can be tapped like Sugar Maples in early spring and the fermented sap made into birch beer. Of Canadas birches, sweet birch has the most dense wood. One cubic metre of air-dried wood weighs 656 kg. (Kershaw)

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Plant Characteristics

Duration: Perennial
Habit: Tree
Leaf Complexity: Simple
Leaf: Green
Autumn Foliage: yes
Fruit: Green
Size Class: 72-100 ft.

Bloom Information

Bloom Color: Red , Yellow , Green , Brown
Bloom Time: Apr , May

Distribution

USA: AL , CT , DE , GA , KY , ME , MD , MA , MS , NH , NJ , NY , NC , OH , PA , RI , SC , TN , VT , VA , WV
Canada: ON
Native Distribution: S. ME through NY to n.e. OH, s. though mts. to NC & AL
Native Habitat: Rich, mountain woods; cool north & east slopes
USDA Native Status: L48(N), CAN(N)

Growing Conditions

Water Use: Medium
Light Requirement: Part Shade , Shade
Soil Moisture: Moist , Dry
Soil pH: Acidic (pH<6.8)
CaCO3 Tolerance: Low
Soil Description: Rich, moist, well-drained soil.
Conditions Comments: Cherry birch is resistant to bronze birch borer, but like other birches is troubled by a number of problems. Exhibits the best fall color of the commonly cultivated birches, especially in the Midwest. Do not prune until summer when the sap has stopped flowing.

Benefit

Use Wildlife: Very high.
Use Other: This tree has been a source of the commercial extract known as oil of wintergreen. In taste, odor and chemical composition it is identical with the original wintergreen obtained from the plant of that name. A member of the same family as trailing arbutus. young and sapling trees were the preferred source, and it took about one hundred such to produce a single quart of the oil. The country folk sold the oil by the quart to storekeepers, who passed it on to the wholesale druggists, and these in turn refined it and used it to flavour drugs, medicines, and candy. (Peattie)
Interesting Foliage: yes
Fragrant Foliage: yes
Attracts: Birds

Butterflies and Moths of North America (BAMONA)

Betula lenta is a larval host and/or nectar source for:

Green Comma
(Polygonia faunus)

Food Source

Learn more at BAMONA

Last Update: 2012-10-15