Blooms: April-May
Habit: tree
Duration: perennial
Origin: Introduced
Distribution: Occurring in Washington on both sides of the Cascades; Introduced as an ornamental in Washington; occurring in isolated locations in south-central Canada and the eastern U.S.
Habitat: Disturbed areas associated with urban and suburban development where the trees escape from cultivation.

Species Description:

General: Monoecious, deciduous trees to 25 m., trunks usually several, the crowns spreading; bark of mature trees creamy to silvery-white, smooth, peeling in long strips; lenticels dark; branches pendulous, twigs glabrous, dotted with small, resinous glands.
Leaves: Leaf blades broadly ovate to rhombic, 3-7 cm. long and 2.5-5 cm. wide, the base wedge-shaped, the margins sharply double serrate, the tip acuminate, surfaces glabrous to sparsely pubescent.
Flowers: Staminate catkins 3 per scale, pendulous; pistillate catkins 3 per scale, erect, cylindric, 2-3.5 cm. long, the scales 3-lobed, the lateral lobes broad and rounded, much longer that the central lobe.
Fruits: Samaras with wings much broader than bodies, broadest in the center.

Betula pendula Roth

Treated in Flora of the PNW as:

PNW Herbaria Specimens: View list of Betula pendula specimens in the Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria database.

WTU Herbarium Specimens: View list of Betula pendula specimens in the WTU Herbarium database.

Washington Flora Checklist: Betula pendula treatment.

E-Flora BC: Betula pendula atlas page.

CalPhotos: Betula pendula images.

USDA Plants Database: Betula pendula.