Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

Western Carolina University (20) View all

Common forest trees of North Carolina

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Item’s are ‘child’ level descriptions to ‘parent’ objects, (e.g. one page of a whole book).

  • e> -^<*£i?"*s -e> -£6gp<^- st tree; <s??-s -<5> •$%&<%&■ YELLOW BIRCH (Betula lutea Michx.) THE yellow birch is confined to our cool, high mountain slopes, generally at greater elevations than the black birch, from which it can usually be distinguished by its bark. It is a large tree, often with a short or crooked trunk, occasionally reaching a height of 100 feet and a diameter of 4 feet. The bark on the trunk and large branches is silvery or yellow-gray, with thin papery layers sepa- YELLOW BIRCH One-half natural size. rating and often curling at the edges, giving the trunk a ragged appearance. The twigs are light brown, lustrous and slightly aromatic, but less so than those of the black birch. The leaves are simple, alternate, oval or approximately oblong, doubly and finely toothed, 3 to 5 inches long, dark green and lusterless on the upper surface. The flowers are in catkins; the male, or stami- nate catkins, purplish and visible all the winter previous to opening; the female, or pistillate, catkins greenish, erect, shorter and thicker than those of the black birch, and developing in the spring. The wood is heavy, strong, hard, close-grained and light brown in color. It is used for flooring, woodenware, furniture, and other uses, but is considered inferior to the black birch. It is prized as firewood. „
Object
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Object’s are ‘parent’ level descriptions to ‘children’ items, (e.g. a book with pages).