Plantae > Tracheophyta > Magnoliopsida > Fagales > Betulaceae > Betula > Betula nigra

Betula nigra (river birch)

Synonyms:

Wikipedia Abstract

Betula nigra (black birch, river birch, water birch) is a species of birch native to the Eastern United States from New Hampshire west to southern Minnesota, and south to northern Florida and west to Texas. It is one of the few heat-tolerant birches in a family of mostly cold-weather trees which do not thrive in USDA Zone 6 and up. B. nigra commonly occurs in flood plains and/or swamps.
View Wikipedia Record: Betula nigra

Attributes

Air Quality Improvement [1]  Low
Allergen Potential [1]  Medium-High
Carbon Capture [1]  Low
Screening - Summer [2]  Moderate
Screening - Winter [2]  Porous
Shade Percentage [1]  82 %
Temperature Reduction [1]  Medium
Wind Reduction [1]  Medium-Low
Bloom Period [2]  Mid Spring
Drought Tolerance [2]  Low
Edible [3]  May be edible. See the Plants For A Future link below for details.
Fire Tolerance [2]  Medium
Flower Type [3]  Monoecious
Frost Free Days [2]  5 months
Fruit/Seed Abundance [2]  High
Fruit/Seed Begin [2]  Spring
Fruit/Seed End [2]  Spring
Growth Form [2]  Multiple Stem
Growth Period [2]  Spring, Summer
Growth Rate [2]  Rapid
Janka Hardness [4]  930 lbf (422 kgf) Soft
Leaf Type [3]  Deciduous
Lifespan [2]  Perennial
Pollinators [3]  Wind
Propagation [2]  Bare Root, Container, Cutting, Seed
Root Depth [2]  20 inches (51 cm)
Seed Spread Rate [2]  Rapid
Seed Vigor [2]  High
Seeds Per [2]  374399 / lb (825410 / kg)
Shape/Orientation [2]  Erect
Specific Gravity [5]  0.56
Structure [3]  Tree
Usage [3]  Young branches are used to make besoms, whisks etc; This species has an extensive root system and is sometimes planted for erosion control along the banks of streams; Wood - light, strong, close grained and hard, but it contains many knots because of the numerous branches along the trunk. It weighs 36lb per cubic foot. Of little use commercially, though it is sometimes used for furniture, turnery etc;
Vegetative Spread Rate [2]  Slow
Flower Color [2]  Brown
Foliage Color [2]  Green
Fruit Color [2]  Brown
Height [3]  66 feet (20 m)
Width [1]  30 feet (9.1 m)
Hardiness Zone Minimum [1]  USDA Zone: 4 Low Temperature: -30 F° (-34.4 C°) → -20 F° (-28.9 C°)
Hardiness Zone Maximum [1]  USDA Zone: 9 Low Temperature: 20 F° (-6.7 C°) → 30 F° (-1.1 C°)
Light Preference [2]  Full Sun
Soil Acidity [2]  Very Acid
Soil Fertility [2]  Intermediate
Water Use [1]  High
View Plants For A Future Record : Betula nigra

Protected Areas

Ecosystems

Predators

Range Map

External References

USDA Plant Profile

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1i-Tree Species v. 4.0, developed by the USDA Forest Service's Northern Research Station and SUNY-ESF using the Horticopia, Inc. plant database.
♦ 2USDA Plants Database, U. S. Department of Agriculture
♦ 3Plants For A Future licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
♦ 4Wood Janka Hardness Scale/Chart J W Morlan's Unique Wood Gifts
♦ 5Forest Inventory and Analysis DB version 5.1, May 4, 2013, U.S. Forest Service
♦ 6HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants Gaden S. Robinson, Phillip R. Ackery, Ian J. Kitching, George W. Beccaloni AND Luis M. Hernández
♦ 7Study of Northern Virginia Ecology
♦ 8Ben-Dov, Y., Miller, D.R. & Gibson, G.A.P. ScaleNet 4 November 2009
♦ 9Biological Records Centre Database of Insects and their Food Plants
♦ 10New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Plant-SyNZ™ database
♦ 11Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0