Sugar birch

Sugar birch
	Sugar birch ( Betula lenta ), illustration
Systematics
	Rosids
	Eurosiden I
Order :	Beech-like (Fagales)
Family :	Birch family (Betulaceae)
Genre :	Birch trees ( betula )
Type :	Sugar birch
Scientific name
	Betula lenta
	L.

The sugar-birch ( Betula lenta ) is a medium sized deciduous tree of the genus Birken in the family of birch family (Betulaceae). The distribution area is in eastern Canada and in the eastern United States.

description

The sugar birch is a tree up to 25 meters high with a narrow and regular upright crown and dark red-brown to blackish, heavily cracked, but not rolling bark . Young shoots are reddish brown, initially silvery hairy and later glabrous. They taste sweet and smell aromatic when injured. The leaves are oblong-egg-shaped, 5 to 10 centimeters long and 3 to 6 centimeters wide, pointed with a mostly heart-shaped base and a sharply double-sawn edge. The upper side of the leaf is glossy dark green and glabrous, the underside is dull green and initially silky hairy. 9 to 12 pairs of nerves are formed per leaf. The petiole is 0.6 to 2.5 inches long. As female inflorescences 2 to 3.5 centimeters long, erect, egg-shaped, almost sedentary catkins are formed. The fruit scales are bare and have short lobes. The side lobes are rounded and protruding. Wing nuts are formed as fruits, the wings of which are narrower than the seed body.

The number of chromosomes is . ${\ displaystyle 2n = 28}$

bark
Young sugar birch
Leafy branch with fruit cluster

Distribution and ecology

Distribution area of the sugar birch

The distribution area is in the province of Ontario in eastern Canada and in several sub-states in the northeast and southeast of the USA. There it grows in species-rich forests and groups of trees on fresh to moist, nutrient-rich, acidic to neutral, sandy-humic or loamy-humic soils in sunny to light-shaded, cool-balanced locations. The species is frost hardy. The sugar birch is the dominant species of the hardwood forests of the northern Appalachians .

Systematics and research history

The sugar birch ( Betula lenta ) is a kind of the genus of birch ( Betula ) in the family of birch family (Betulaceae). The first description was in 1753 by Carl von Linné in the Species Plantarum .

One can distinguish between two forms:

Betula lenta f. lenta : It occurs from eastern Canada to the eastern United States.
Betula lenta f. about (Ashe) McAll. & Ashburner (Syn .: Betula uber (Ashe) Fernald ): It occurs only in the US state of Virginia .

use

The species is widely used because of its wood. Due to the remarkable autumn colors, it is also a popular ornamental wood . It used to be the main source of methyl salicylate , which was obtained from wood. The Indian inhabitants also used the species medicinally against colds, fevers, diarrhea and pain.

proof

literature

Andreas Roloff , Andreas Bärtels: Flora of the woods. Purpose, properties and use. With a winter key from Bernd Schulz. 3rd, corrected edition. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart (Hohenheim) 2008, ISBN 978-3-8001-5614-6 , p. 139.

Individual evidence

↑ German names after Roloff et al .: Flora der Gehölze , p. 139
↑ ^a ^b ^c Roloff et al .: Flora of the Woods , p. 139
↑ ^a ^b ^c Betula lenta. In: Flora of North America Vol. 3. www.eFloras.org, accessed December 28, 2011 .
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Rafaël Govaerts (Ed.): Betula - World Checklist of Selected Plant Families of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Last accessed on January 10, 2017.

Web links

Commons : Sugar Birch ( Betula lenta ) - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

[deutsch-1] German names after Roloff et al .: Flora der Gehölze , p. 139

[FdG-2] Roloff et al .: Flora of the Woods , p. 139

[FoNA-3] Betula lenta. In: Flora of North America Vol. 3. www.eFloras.org, accessed December 28, 2011 .

[WCSP-4] Rafaël Govaerts (Ed.): Betula - World Checklist of Selected Plant Families of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Last accessed on January 10, 2017.