YELLOW BIRCH

also called Silver Birch, or Swamp Birch (Betula alleghaniensis, or B. lutea), ornamental and timber tree of the family Betulaceae, native to the northeastern part of North America. Among the largest of birches, yellow birch grows to 30 m (100 feet) on cool, moist bottomlands and on drier soils to elevations of 1,950 m. On limbs and young trunks the silvery yellow bark peels in paper-thin curls; on old trunks it is red-brown, deeply grooved, and broken into irregular plates. The pale green twigs are slightly aromatic. The hard, pale red-brown wood usually is not separated from that of sweet birch commercially, both woods being sold for furniture, woodenware, veneer, and flooring.