page_title: Betula pubescens
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Betula pubescens / Description
caption_attribution_description: Eesti: Sookask Niitvälja soos (kaamerasisene HDR). English: Moor birch (Betula pubescens) in Niitvälja bog, northwestern Estonia (in-camera HDR).
context_page_description: Betula pubescens, commonly known as downy birch and also as moor birch, white birch, European white birch or hairy birch, is a species of deciduous tree, native and abundant throughout northern Europe and northern Asia, growing farther north than any other broadleaf tree. It is closely related to, and often confused with, the silver birch, but grows in wetter places with heavier soils and poorer drainage; smaller trees can also be confused with the dwarf birch.
  Three varieties are recognised and it hybridises with the silver and dwarf birches. A number of cultivars have been developed but many are no longer in cultivation. The larva of the autumnal moth feeds on the foliage and in some years, large areas of birch forest can be defoliated by this insect. Many fungi are associated with the tree and certain pathogenic fungi are the causal agents of birch dieback disease.
  The tree is a pioneer species, readily colonising cleared land, but later being replaced by taller, more long-lived species.
context_section_description: Betula pubescens is commonly known as downy birch, with other common names including moor birch, white birch, European white birch or hairy birch.
  It is a deciduous tree growing to 10 to 20 m (33 to 66 ft) tall (rarely to 27 m), with a slender crown and a trunk up to 70 cm (28 in) (exceptionally 1 m) in diameter, with smooth but dull grey-white bark finely marked with dark horizontal lenticels. The shoots are grey-brown with fine downy. The leaves are ovate-acute, 2 to 5 cm (0.8 to 2.0 in) long and 1.5 to 4.5 cm (0.6 to 1.8 in) broad, with a finely serrated margin. The flowers are wind-pollinated catkins, produced in early spring before the leaves. The fruit is a pendulous, cylindrical aggregate 1 to 4 cm (0.4 to 1.6 in) long and 5 to 7 mm (0.2 to 0.3 in) wide which disintegrates at maturity, releasing the individual seeds; these seeds are 2 mm (0.08 in) long with two small wings along the side.
caption: The branches are upward or horizontally spread, but never pendulous (as with silver birch)
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