26 HANDBOOK 14 8, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



8. Bark at base of old trunks not shredding or separating into 

 layers; leaves shiny on one side, blunt- to sharp-pointed or 

 rounded at tips; twigs with persistent, warty resin dots; 



shrubs or small trees with clustered trunks, often thicket- 

 forming. 



10. Mature leaves to 2V 2 inches long, thin but firm, shiny 

 yellowish green underneath, dull dark green and (when 

 young) resin-dotted above, broadly egg- or diamond- 

 shaped to nearly round; margins unevenly saw-toothed, 

 slightly lobed; bark bronze or dark reddish or purplish 

 brown, shiny; tall shrubs or bushy trees to 40 feet high, 

 with ascending branches; wooded areas along streams, 

 commonest birch of e. Oreg., e. Wash. 



water birch (Betula occidentalis) . 4 

 10. Mature leaves to l 1 /^ inches long, thick, pale green, 

 resin-dotted on under surface, shiny dark green on upper 

 surface, net-veined, round or reverse-egg-shaped; mar- 

 gins scallop-toothed; bark dark brown or reddish; much- 

 branched shrub to 6 or 8 feet high, with flexible twigs; 

 boggy places in mountain meadows, e. Oreg., e. Wash. 



bog birch (Betula glandulosa) . 

 3. Pollen- and seed-producing catkins on different plants, appearing 

 before, with, or after the leaves; seed pods (capsules) cone-, 

 globe-, or bottle-shaped, splitting down from top into 2 or 3 parts 

 (valves); seeds tiny, hairy-tufted at base; twigs often self- 

 pruning; leaves in a % arrangement on the twigs; trees or shrubs. 

 [Alternate 3, p. 20.] aspen, cottonwood, and willows. 



11. Buds more or less resinous; end buds present; bud scales 

 several, overlapping; leaves relatively broad and long- 

 stalked; leave margins finely saw- or scallop-toothed, or 

 sometimes almost entire; stipules inconspicuous, soon falling; 

 catkins drooping from last year's twigs, appearing before the 

 leaves; each pollen- or seed-producing flower in a stalked 

 cuplike disk in the axil of a fringed or cut-lobed, hairy, soon- 

 fallingsflower scale; seed pods stalked, cone- or globe-shaped; 

 trees, often spreading by root suckers. _ aspen and cottonwood. 

 12. Leafstalks twisted near the leaf blade and flattened at 

 right angles to it, slender; leaves nearly round in outline, 

 abruptly pointed at tip, green on both sides, turn bright 

 golden or orange-yellow in fall; seed pods cone-shaped, 

 splitting into 2 parts; trees often 30-40 feet high (to 60 or 

 80 feet), with smooth, whitish bark except near ground, 



4 A drooping-branched variety of water birch [Betula occidentalis Hook., var. 

 fecunda Fern. (Rhodora 47:317. 1945)] with paired or clustered seed-producing 

 catkins and dark bronze bark was first described as a new, unnamed species by 

 Piper and Beattie (The Flora of the Palouse Region, p. 55. 1901) from material 

 growing on "Springy^ hillsides near Almota," Garfield Co., e. Wash.; it was indi- 

 cated merely as the authors' third "B." Perhaps this is the same as Guthrie birch 

 (Betula guthriei Sudw.) which Major Guthrie found in 1924, "in northeastern 

 Oregon growing along the Imnaha River and its tributary canyons from the mouth 

 of the river to a point 35 miles above, reaching elevations of from about 2,500 to 

 4,500 feet," and which the late Dr. George B. Sudworth named for Major Guthrie 

 [A New Western Birch. Araer. For. and For. Life 33 (401): 286-7. May, 1927]. 

 It also answers the description of B. piperi Britton (Torr. Bot. Club Bui. 31: 165. 

 1904) but unfortunately not the type specimen of that species. 



