Click on the images help you identify a paper birch.
Form
Height is 65 to 70 feet with a trunk diameter of 14 to 20 inches. Twigs are dull orange or red during first winter, later becoming brown. Open crown. Grows singly or in clusters.
Bark
Bark is thin and papery, becoming pure white with age and marked by many pores (lenticels). Bark separates into thin sheets that often roll up. Older bark thickens and becomes dark (nearly black) and scaly.
Leaf
Simple, alternate on stem, length 2 to 3 inches; 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 on lower side. Turns light yellow in autumn.
Fruit (seed)
Nutlet resembles a cone and contains many tiny seeds. Nutlets are tightly grouped in a 1 to 1-1/2 inch long catkin that ripens in August and September.
Range
Generally abundant throughout the state except the southwest; shade intolerant, fast growing.
Wood uses
Hard, strong, tough, lightweight, brown tinged with red, nearly white sapwood. Used for spools, toothpicks, toys, snowshoe frames, handles, paper pulp, flooring, firewood, and interior finish. The betulin (a substance with fungicidal properties) in the bark is resistant to water and rot. Birch bark has been used extensively to construct canoes and wigwams. Today it is still used to produce baskets, cups, bags, and other useful utensils.