Click on the images help you identify a river birch.
Form
Height is 40 to 60 feet with a trunk diameter up to 24 inches. Mature trees usually have a short trunk that divides into several large ascending limbs that compose an open, irregular crown of slender drooping branchlets.
Bark
Bark is dark brown at base of old trunks and deeply furrowed. Bark that is higher up on main stem and on larger branches becomes lustrous reddish brown. Peels more or less freely. Twigs are reddish color with white dots (lenticels).
Leaf
Simple, alternate on stem, length 1-1/2 to 3 inches. Leaves are more or less triangular with double-toothed edges. Color is dark green on upper surface dark green and pale yellow green on lower surface. Leaves turn yellow in autumn.
Fruit (seed)
Winged nutlets densely crowded into a cone-shaped catkin about 1 inch long. Nutlets ripen in late spring or early summer.
Range
Grows along rich bottom lands of streams and rivers in the southeastern corner of the state, especially in the Mississippi and Root river valleys. Common along Mississippi River as far south as Wabasha County. Also reported near Mankato. Shade intolerant, moderately fast growing. Generally a pioneer species.
Wood uses
The light brown, close-grained, hard, strong wood is used in the manufacture of furniture. River birch is scattered in distribution and mostly confined to banks of streams. Used for fuel, erosion control projects, and ornamental plantings. River birch is the only native birch resistant to the bronze birch borer.