- Taxon
- Weed
- Gallery
Classification
Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Betula pendula Roth, Tent. Fl. Germ. 1, 405 (1788)
Synonymy:
- = Betula verrucosa Ehrh. (1790)
Vernacular Name(s):
European birch; Silver birch; White birch
Description
Tree to c. 25 m high; branchlets slender, often semi-drooping. Bark smooth at first, silvery-white and papery, usually becoming dark grey and rough at least on lower trunk. Shoots glabrous, ± glandular-resinous, prominently lenticellate and appearing warty. Petiole slender, mostly 7–25 mm long. Lamina 3–6 × 1.5–5.5 cm, deltoid, ovate or rhombic-ovate, glabrous, with 5–7 pairs of veins, glandular-resinous when young, coarsely and doubly serrate; base subcordate, truncate or broadly cuneate; apex acuminate. ♂ catkins 2–9 cm long; bract 2–3 mm long, shield-like, both bract and bracteoles ciliolate. ♀ catkins 1.5–2.5 cm long, scarcely elongating at fruiting but becoming broadly cyclindric and c. 0.7 cm wide. Stigmas rose. Scales 3.5–4.5 × 4–5 mm, puberulent; lateral lobes broader and rounder than middle lobe, widespreading and often ± downward curving. Fr. 1.5–2.5 mm long; wing much > fr.
[From: Webb et al. (1988) Flora of New Zealand. Volume 4.]
Biostatus
Exotic
Phenology
Flowering: Sep.–Nov.
Bibliography
Edwards, R. 2008: Lincoln University campus – a guide to some of the trees currently growing there. Lincoln University, Lincoln.
Howell, C. 2008: Consolidated list of environmental weeds in New Zealand. DOC Research & Development Series 292: 42.
Roth, A.W. 1788: Tentamen Florae Germanicae. Vol. 1. Müller, Leipzig.
Tutin, T.G.; Heywood, V.H.; Burges, N.A.; Moore, D.M.; Valentine, D.H.; Walters, S.M.; Webb, D.A. (ed.) 1964–1993: Flora Europaea. Cambridge University Press.
