Birch, Black
Betula lenta
A large 50-80’ tree with a trunk up to 3’ in diameter. The bark is shiny and smooth with horizontal lines in young trees, becoming blackish and very rough and even more horizontally lined in older trees. The elliptical, long-pointed, saw-toothed leaves are often paired on short side twigs. The tiny male flowers are in yellowish 3” catkins drooping from the tips of twigs. The tiny female flowers are in shorter, ½”, more upright green catkins arising back of the tips of the same twigs. The fruit is a ¾-1½” upturned cone containing many 2-winged nutlets. Flowers April, May; fruits August-October. Crushed leaves and twigs have a strong wintergreen odor, and at one time oil-of-wintergreen was prepared from the bark and wood of young trees and was used to flavor candy and medicine. The wood is hard and useful for furniture making. The sap can be tapped in the early spring, fermented and made into birch beer.