Trees of Indiana: First Revised Edition (Publication No. 13, Department of Conservation, State of Indiana)Deam, Charles Clemon
Science
Trees of Indiana: First Revised Edition (Publication No. 13, Department of Conservation, State of Indiana)
Deam, Charles Clemon
Trees -- Indiana
=2.= =Betula populifòlia= Marshall. Gray or White Birch. Plate 33. A
small tree; bark a chalky-white, not separating into thin layers, inner
bark orange, on the trunks of old trees nearly black; shoots at first
covered with numerous glands, becoming smooth and yellowish or
reddish-brown; leaves generally long-deltoid, average blades 3-6 cm.
long, usually long taper-pointed, truncate or nearly so at the base,
irregularly double-serrate, slightly pubescent on the veins when young,
soon becoming glabrous; fertile catkins 1.5-3 cm. long and about 7 mm.
in diameter; bracts of eastern trees differ from those of Indiana trees
which are about 3-4 mm. long, lobed to about 1/3 of the distance from
the apex, lateral lobes the largest and strongly divaricate, puberulent
on the back; seed strongly notched at the apex; nut slightly obovoid;
wings much broader than the nut.
=Distribution.=--Nova Scotia west to southern Ontario and south to
Delaware and Pennsylvania. In Indiana it has been reported from Lake,
Laporte, Porter, St. Joseph and Tippecanoe Counties. There may be some
doubt about the Tippecanoe record, since many of the older records were
made from cultivated trees. The numbers of the species in Indiana were
always limited. It is not able to meet changed conditions and it has
already almost disappeared from our area. I was told that formerly this
species was found all about a lake in Laporte County, but it has all
died out. Its appearance in Indiana is peculiar since it is not found
west of us, or north in Michigan or east in Ohio. This small group of
trees near Lake Michigan is three or four hundred miles from the nearest
of their kind.
=Remarks.=--This species is called white and gray birch. The largest
tree seen in Indiana was about 2 dm. in diameter and 13 m. high.
[Illustration: Plate 33.
BETULA POPULIFOLIA Marshall. White or Gray Birch. (× 1/2.)]
[Illustration: Plate 34.
BETULA PAPYRIFERA Marshall. Paper or Canoe Birch. (× 1/2.)]
=3.= =Betula papyrífera= Marshall. Paper or Canoe Birch. Plate 34.
Rather a small tree; bark thin, creamy white; chalky, dark near the base
on old trees, separating in thin papery layers; shoots green, glandular
and hairy, becoming glabrous and reddish-brown; leaves ovate or
rhombic-ovate, acute to long taper-pointed, truncate, rounded or
wedge-shape at the base, average blades 5-8 cm. long, usually
irregularly double-serrate, hairy at first, becoming glabrous above or
nearly so, remaining more or less pubescent below, especially on the
veins and with tufts of hairs in the axils of the veins, minutely
glandular on both surfaces, sometimes with only a few glands on the
midribs above; fertile catkins 2-4 cm. long and about 6-9 mm. wide,
bracts about 4 mm. long, pubescent on both faces, lobed to about
one-third the distance from the apex, the lateral lobes the largest,
divaricate or slightly recurved; seed deeply notched at apex, nut oval,
pubescent at the apex, wings as broad as, or broader than the nut.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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