YELLOW BIRCH; GRAY (Belula lutes, Michx.). 30 to 7.5 feet; rarely 100 feet. Medium-sized, broad, round-topped tree with drooping branchlets. Bark rough, gray, or brown, deeply furrowed into plates coated with the silky yellow epidermis that curls and persists for years, limbs smooth, with same silvery yellow, frayed into ribbons; twigs pubescent the first season. Wood brownish red, hard, close-grained, strong, used for furniture, finish of houses, wheel hubs, but tons, boxes, and fuel. Leaves 3 to 4 inches long, ovate to oblong, pointed, saw-toothed, oblique at base, dull, dark green, paler beneath, turning yellow. Flowers before leaves,
April, in catkins, moncecious: staminate in 3's, 3 to 4 inches long, brownish yellow, pendulous, with abundant pollen; pistillate less than an inch long, cylindrical, green, turning , rosy, hairy-tipped. Fruit stout, oblong or ovoid cones, erect, on short stems, scales triangular, 3-cleft at top; seed heart-shaped, with narrow, circular wing. Dist.: Moist up land soil, Newfoundland to New England, Delaware, North Carolina, and Tennessee; west to Minnesota. Largest size and most abundant in New England and eastern Canada.