37. Weeping European White Birch

Tree Tour

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Cross Stevens Way again, edge around the Communications building, walk under the George Washington elm (Ulmus americana), then out on the lawn north of the Music building observe, 40 feet from an eastern white pine, a weeping white birch. This fine tree drips its slender twigs making a fountain of foliage. Like Scots pine, this birch is a denizen of northern Europe, and is widely familiar because of its bark. It is so common locally that many Seattleites may think it's native here, and in fact it does frequently spring up wild. From paper birch it is easily distinguished. This individual is noticeably infested with ugly black branch galls of dormant buds. Other cultivated varieties of this species include purpleleaf, cutleaf, fastigiate and mophead weeping; none but the cut leaf is present on campus.

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