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Photographer: Robert W. Freckmann
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Family Betulaceae
Betula nigra L.
black birch, red birch, river birch
Betula: ancient Latin name
nigra: Latin for "black"
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| Status: | Native |
| Plant: | perennial tree to 80' tall, often several trunks, rounded crown; mature trees with smooth, grayish brown, yellowish, reddish, or creamy white bark irregularly peeling in shaggy pieces with time; dark, horizontal lenticels; twigs with no wintergreen taste or smell |
| Flower: | blooms in late spring |
| Fruit: | conical to round, erect fruit clusters; scales often remaining into early winter; samara wings narrower than the body and usually widest near the top |
| Leaf: | leaves rhombic-oval, edges coarsely doubly cut to toothed |
| Habitat: | moist to wet; riverbanks, floodplains |
| Notes: | often hybirdizes |
| (Glossary) |
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