gray birch

gray birch
a small, bushy birch, Betula populifolia, of stony or sandy areas of the eastern U.S., having grayish-white bark and triangular leaves.
[1850-55, Amer.]

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tree
also spelled  Grey Birch,  also called  Oldfield Birch, Wire Birch, or Poplar-leaved Birch 

      (Betula populifolia), slender ornamental tree of the family Betulaceae, found in clusters on moist sites in northeastern North America. Rarely 12 m (40 feet) tall, it is covered almost to the ground with flexible branches that form a narrow, pyramidal crown. The thin, glossy, dark green, triangular leaves have long, thin stems and flutter in the wind. In one variety, the leaves are purplish when young.

      The red-brown or gray bark of young stems and branches whitens as the tree matures, becoming red orange on the inner surface. The outer bark resembles that of paper birch but is not so white, peels less, and has rough, triangular, black patches below the junctions of branches and trunk.

      Gray birch often is injured by ice and snow. Quick growing but short-lived, it seeds prolifically, providing burned or abandoned areas with a ground cover that protects the seedlings of more permanent trees. It is also planted as an ornamental in naturalistic landscapes. Gray birch wood is used in turnery and for fuel. See also birch.

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Universalium. 2010.

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Look at other dictionaries:

  • gray birch — noun medium sized birch of eastern North America having white or pale grey bark and valueless wood; occurs often as a second growth forest tree • Syn: ↑grey birch, ↑American grey birch, ↑American gray birch, ↑Betula populifolia • Hypernyms:… …   Useful english dictionary

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  • gray birch — noun Date: 1840 1. a small birch (Betula populifolia) of northeastern North America that has many lateral branches, grayish white bark, triangular leaves, and soft weak wood and that occurs especially in old fields reverting to woodland 2. yellow …   New Collegiate Dictionary

  • American gray birch — noun medium sized birch of eastern North America having white or pale grey bark and valueless wood; occurs often as a second growth forest tree • Syn: ↑grey birch, ↑gray birch, ↑American grey birch, ↑Betula populifolia • Hypernyms: ↑birch, ↑birch …   Useful english dictionary

  • Birch — Birch, 1) (spr. börtsch) Samuel, engl. Sprachforscher und Archäolog, geb. 3. Nov. 1813 in London, gest. daselbst 27. Dez. 1885, besuchte die Schulen zu Greenwich und Blackheath, dann die Merchant Taylors School in London, wurde 1836 Assistent,… …   Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon

  • birch — /berrch/, n. 1. any tree or shrub of the genus Betula, comprising species with a smooth, laminated outer bark and close grained wood. Cf. birch family. 2. the wood itself. 3. a birch rod, or a bundle of birch twigs, used esp. for whipping. adj. 4 …   Universalium

  • birch tree — noun any betulaceous tree or shrub of the genus Betula having a thin peeling bark • Syn: ↑birch • Hypernyms: ↑tree • Hyponyms: ↑yellow birch, ↑Betula alleghaniensis, ↑Betula leutea, ↑ …   Useful english dictionary

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  • Birch — Taxobox name = Birch image width = 240px image caption = Silver Birch regnum = Plantae divisio = Magnoliophyta classis = Magnoliopsida ordo = Fagales familia = Betulaceae genus = Betula genus authority = L. subdivision ranks = Species subdivision …   Wikipedia

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