45. Yellow Birch

Tree Tour

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A Yellow birch stands in a grassy triangle with 8 Douglas firs and a huge English elm west of MacKenzie Hall. Too bad the birch branches are out of reach, since the living twigs smell of wintergreen. Its bark is birch-like in its horizontal, peeling fashion, but is yellow-tinged dark gray instead of the familiar chalky white of more commonly seen birches. The catkins, however, and little seed-cones, declare this species a Betula. It is a great lumber tree in the central and eastern U.S., and its wood is very useful. As an ornamental it serves as a broad shade tree, bright in yellow fall color, free of insect and disease ravages, but not liked enough to rival its pale bark cousins.

Pictured below: Map of geographical range of Yellow Birch.

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