Synonyms: Betula lutea.
In Maryland, Yellow Birch occurs mainly in rich woods of the higher mountains.
Yellow Birch is a tree of the northern tier of states as far west as Minnesota and along the Appalachian Mountains to northern Georgia. It is most commonly found on cool, moist sites.
Yellow Birch is a medium-sized forest tree. It is sometimes confused with Sweet Birch. A key difference is that Yellow Birch bark is more yellow in color and, in mature specimens, it flakes off in thin layers, whereas the bark of Sweet Birch is darkish and is generally less peely. Horizontal lenticels are often prominent on Yellow Birch bark. Leaves are simple and alternate but are borne on spur shoots and appear opposite or whorled. They are sharply double serrate. "Stilt" roots are commonly seen, either cascading down the sides of large rocks or aerial; if aerial, the tree became established on a stump or nurse log that has since rotted away. Male catkins are present all winter, whereas female catkins develop in the spring. Seeds are minute, winged, and borne in smallish, ovoid, upright cones.
Wherever enough moisture is present, the seedlings of this tree occur in great numbers. "Yellow birch seeds dispersed in the fall and winter germinate at warm temperatures in early June.... In undisturbed stands, yellow birch can only regenerate on mossy logs, decayed wood, rotten stumps, cracks in boulders, and windthrown hummocks because hardwood leaf litter is detrimental to its survival elsewhere. In June most seeds germinate in compacted leaf litter that birch radicals and hypocotyls cannot pierce. Drying of the litter during the growing season kills most germinants. The remaining seedlings later succumb to frost damage or are smothered by the next leaf fall" (Gilbert, 1965). In time, the stumps and nurse logs on which trees do become established rot, "leaving the trees on "stilts" (roots that have meantime grown along the stump until they have reached the ground)" (Harlow, 1957). Similarly, seedlings established on rocky substrates put roots down into the soil around the rock.
On moist, cool sites, the most common coniferous associate of Yellow Birch is Eastern Hemlock, whose abundant seedlings will, like Yellow Birch's, grow almost anywhere in the forest that has ample moisture, including on stumps. In fact, "it is not uncommon to find one or more hemlocks and yellow birches competing for the supremacy of a single stump" (Harlow, 1957).
Host plant for various moth species including American Dagger Moth, Wavy-lined Emerald Moth, Pale Beauty Moth, and Banded Tussock Moth, and possibly also for Chocolate Prominent Moth (Database of World's Lepidopteran Host Plants, Miller et al., 2018).
There are 42 records in the project database.
| GA | AL | WA | FR | CL | MO | HO | BA | BC | HA | CE | PG | AA | CV | CH | SM | KE | QA | CN | TA | DO | WI | SO | WO |
