Betula lenta
Illustration
The sugar - birch (Betula lenta ) is a medium -sized deciduous tree of the genus of birch trees in the birch family ( Betulaceae ). The distribution area is located in eastern Canada and the eastern United States.
Description
The sugar Birch is one to 25 meters tall tree with narrow and regular upright crown and dark red-brown to blackish, heavily cracked but not scrollable bark. Young shoots are reddish brown, silvery hairy at first and later bare. They taste sweet and smell aromatic in case of injury. The leaves are oblong - ovate, 5-10 cm long and 3-6 cm wide, acuminate, usually with heart-shaped base and sharp double serrated edge. The upper leaf surface is glossy dark green and glabrous, the lower surface is pale green and hairy at first silky. Each sheet can be formed 9 to 12 pairs of nerves. The petiole is 0.6 to 2.5 inches long. As a female inflorescences are 2 to 3.5 cm long, erect, formed ovate, almost sitting kitten. The fruit scales are bald and have short lobes. The lateral lobes are rounded and protruding. As fruits wing nuts are formed, the wing is narrower than the fruiting body. The chromosome number is.
Young birch sugar
Leafy branch with fruit stand
Distribution and ecology
The distribution area is located in the province of Ontario in eastern Canada and in several states in the Northeast and Southeast. Where it grows in biodiversity-rich forests and copses on fresh to moist, fertile, acidic to neutral, sandy- humic or clay- rich soils in full sun to light shade, cool - balanced locations. The species is frost hardy. The sugar - birch is the dominant species of the hardwood forests of the northern Appalachians.
Systematics and history of research
The sugar - birch (Betula lenta ) is a species in the genus of birch (Betula ) in the birch family ( Betulaceae ). The first description was in 1753 by Linnaeus in Species Plantarum.
Use
The species is frequently used because of their timber. Due to the remarkable fall color it is also a popular ornamental tree. She was formerly the main source of methyl salicylate, which was obtained from the wood. The indigenous inhabitants used the kind medically for colds, fever, diarrhea and pain.