Dahurian Birch - Betula davurica
Native to Manchuria, Northern China and Korea.
 
Leaves and Catkins

Native to Northern China, Korea, and Japan. Hardy to zone 5. Grows to 60' tall, deciduous, forms a rounded canopy with spreading branches and single or multiple trunks casts relatively light shade. Dark green leaves 2" to 4" long, Very showy and interesting bark, similar to B. nigra bark, on younger branches it exfoliates in thin curls and on older branches it puffs on the trunk in blocks resembling vermiculite, color is mixture of orange, silver, gray and brown. A good lawn tree that is easy to grow.
The birches have long been popular ornamental trees in America, chiefly in the northern United States and Canada. Several are native Americans, but many species have been introduced from Europe and Asia. In general, they are graceful trees, the most popular being those with white bark on trunks and larger branches. Some of the others are very serviceable, either because they will grow well in wet soil or because they will exist as well as any other trees, or better, in dry, poor soils.
 
Animals dependant on Birch
  • Moose: Important browse throughout most of range. Nutritional quality is poor in winter, but is important to wintering moose because of its sheer abundance in young stands.
  • White-tailed Deer: though considered a "secondary-choice food", it is an important dietary component. In Minnesota, white-tailed deer eat considerable amounts of birch leaves in the fall.
  • Snowshoe hare browse birch seedlings and saplings.
  • Porcupines feed on the inner bark
  • Beaver also eat it though generally prefer aspen, while willow and paper birch are second choice foods.
  • Voles and shrews eat the seeds.
  • Numerous birds and small mammals eat paper birch buds, catkins and seeds.
  • Young paper birch stands provide prime deer and moose cover.

Birds:

  • Numerous cavity-nesting birds nest in birch, including woodpeckers, chickadees, nuthatches, and swallows.
  • A favorite feeding tree of yellow-bellied sapsuckers, which peck holes in the bark to feed on the sap. Hummingbirds and red squirrels also feed at sap wells in paper birch created by sapsuckers.
  • Ruffed grouse eat the catkins and buds.
  • Redpolls, siskins, and chickadees obtain a considerable portion of their annual diet from birch seeds