Click on the images help you identify a paper birch.
Form
Height 65 to 70 feet, with a trunk diameter of 14 to 20 inches. Twigs are dull orange or red during the first winter, later becoming brown. Open crown. Grows singly or in clusters.
Bark
Thin and papery, becoming pure white with age and marked by many pores (lenticels). Separates into thin sheets that often roll up. Older bark thickens and becomes dark, nearly black, and scaly.
Leaf
Simple, alternate on stem, 2 to 3 inches long; oval or heart-shaped, pointed, rounded at base, irregularly toothed, becoming thick and leathery in texture. Color is dull on upper side and yellowish green underneath. Turns light yellow in autumn.
Fruit (seed)
Nutlets resemble small cones and contain many tiny seeds. Tightly grouped in a 1- to 1-1/2-inch-long catkin, ripening in August and September.
Range
Generally abundant throughout Minnesota except in the southwest. Shade-intolerant, fast-growing.
Wood uses
Hard, strong, tough, lightweight, brown tinged with red, with nearly white sapwood. Used for spools, toothpicks, toys, snowshoe frames, handles, paper pulp, flooring, firewood, and interior finish. The betulin in the bark, with fungicidal properties, is resistant to water and rot. Birch bark has historically been used to construct canoes and wigwams and is still used to produce baskets, cups, bags, and other useful utensils.