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what type of birch would you say this is

Started by Quebecnewf, February 26, 2009, 05:48:57 PM

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Quebecnewf

Here are a couple of pics of our birch. What type does it look like to you. Ignore the chainsaw stuck in the large spruce that leaned the wrong way

Quebecnewf






dsgsr

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Reddog

Looks like what we call Paper birch or White birch. One in the same.

dsgsr, I have never heard of gray birch. What is the range/area that it grows?

Oh and that saw doesn't look stuck, you were just giving it a break. ;)

dsgsr

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rick f

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chainspinrunner

It looks like Gray birch or  Paper birch they are very similar to each other. Both birch's have similar characteristics anywho. Good luck!! Is it in a forest or yard?
Grose

ontariologger


gunman63


Maineloggerkid

It is the color of grey birch, but the peeling bark makes me say that it is white.
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cheyenne

White birch thats collecting social security so it's getting grey.....Cheyenne
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Quebecnewf

If one had two boards one from paper/white birch and one from yellow birch. Could you tell which board came from which tree

Quebecnewf

Gary_C

You should be able to tell by weight comparison as white birch is lighter (lower specific gravity) than yellow birch.

The tree in the pictures is white/paper birch.
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Quebecnewf

Is there that much difference in the SG from one to the other.

The reason I ask this about the birch is a few years ago I had an order of yellow birch deals 2" KD come for a woodworker customer of mine and at the same time he also bought from me some of our local birch that I had KD in my kiln and he told me you could not tell the two apart and he used both woods in the project and I saw the finished product and there was no difference.

Is this normal or are they supposed to be different

Quebecnewf

thecfarm

I had some white birch that looked like that.But mine was good size,over 2 feet easy and old,70-80 years and red rotted bad.This stuff had some real rough looking bark,like grey birch and around the limbs was almost black and rough.The grey birch that I have here does not get much bigger than 6 inches.Probaly because by that time trees have grown up around it and smothered it out.
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Rick Alger

A forester told me that white birch will sometimes hybridize with grey. The tree he showed me looked like yours. He didn't mention yellow birch, but I suppose it might hybridize too.

chainspinrunner

Can you take pictures of the buds or leaves that might be on the ground dried up? If so this is an easier identifier.
Grose

Clark

Quote from: Rick Alger on February 27, 2009, 08:11:32 AM
A forester told me that white birch will sometimes hybridize with grey. The tree he showed me looked like yours. He didn't mention yellow birch, but I suppose it might hybridize too.

I don't know a lick about grey birch, so it could hybridize with paper birch for all I know.  Yellow birch is triploid, that is, it has 3X the number of normal chromosomes (or 3 sets of chromosome...something like that).  I am unaware that paper birch has that same condition which would, from this feeble minded and poorly educated geneticists stand point, make hybridization very unlikely.

Clark

PS - Looks like paper birch but I don't know grey birch.
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beenthere

From what I've confirmed, cannot separate the wood of white birch and yellow birch, even microscopically. And even density is not a sure thing, as there can be overlap in the range of each.

Need the trees for ID. Once in lumber, can be either/or. 

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PAFaller

There are some differences between white birch and yellow birch in certain geographic regions. For instance, my first gig out of college was at a sawmill scaling logs. THis was in south central NH. White birch cut in southern NH had a wormy look to it, even when it was healthy, not so much holes but just an off type of grain, and was far lighter in weight. Same white birch tree grown in the White Mountain national forest, a far colder environment, could be sawn and piled with yellow birch and you could not tell the difference. You could also sell the heartwood as the infamous red birch...talk bout creative marketing of a tree that doesnt actually exist.
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bberry

On the coast of Maine we have all three and the yellow has the best firewood value with gray being the least. The yellow has SLIGHTLY denser,darker,reddish wood. The gray is much inferior in all respects. I have never seen any of the 3 types that show any signs of hybridizing. The yellow has a wintergreen smell and taste, golden bark and is common but sparsely populated. The photos are of white birch.

Colton

Definitely white birch, grey birch doesn't peel like that.

Jeff

White/paper birch. No way its Yellow birch.
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Quebecnewf

In our region we are not supposed to get yellow birch. I have seen White Birch in Quebec City and the tree looks nothing like our so called white birch. The trees in Quebec city have white bark. I think we have yellow birch or a hybird of yellow and white.

Quebecnewf

maybe somone has a photo of white birch

FTD

Looks like Gray Birch to me.  White Birch bark typically doesn't peel so fine.  Also could be Balm of Gilead.

chevytaHOE5674

Quote from: Quebecnewf on March 01, 2009, 04:14:23 PM
maybe somone has a photo of white birch

Heres some pictures of white birches locally here. You can see the bark peals easily and finely.



Quebecnewf

I see in the second pic the same look to the birch as i see in the Quebec city region. In our region they look different. If you were to cut those trees would you be able to tell the wood from yellow birch. do you have a pic of yellow birch trees

Quebecnewf

Kevin

https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,30921.0.html

Yellow birch is a hardwood and much different, that's a white birch.

                       Yellow Birch


chevytaHOE5674

Heres the two side by side. The white/paper birch is very white. The yellow birch bark is a bronzish color.



Yellow birch.



Around here the white birch usually has straight smooth clear white sapwood, and a reddish heart. The yellow birch is stringy and more yellow in color, with a darker heart usually. Both are hardwoods.

Kevin


chevytaHOE5674

Yellow birch has a higher specific gravity so it is a bit more dense.  :)

SwampDonkey

What Quebecnewf has is white birch. Gray birch doesn't peel and the limbs are wirey with warty branch tips. And besides gray birch doesn't grow way up there near Harrington Island. In Canada it grows only in the Maritimes (PEI, NS, NB) and upper Canada below the Great Lakes. Yellow birch however grows as far up as Anticosti Is, Sagueney Quebec region and the south western and south eastern of Newfoundland Is. where it is milder. Gray birch is considered a tall shrub here and non commercial, although harvested for pulp or firewood. Rarely larger the 10" before it dies out. It grows real fast compared to white birch. When we thin we have to be careful to leave the white birch that is growing in through it. Leaves are triangular and waxy with a single catkin, compared to white birch with larger dull leaves and 2 or 3 catkins (male). Don't confuse them with female seed catkins, anyway they (female) are much shorter on gray birch. We treat it mostly as weeds, like we would pin cherry. ;D

Gray birch



---------------------------

White birch




Wow look at the beech thicket in under there. ::) That's what ya get around here for cutting beech firewood and leaving too much maple overstory, beech thrive and kill out the sugar maple seedlings.  Couldn't begin to do a stem count is that brier patch. :-X >:( A lot more overstory there than the picture shows. Those crowns in behind the birch are all sugar maple.

As far as the wood , there is no difference in the native birches when looking at grain. I can tell right away which is which between white and yellow birch because of weight. Yellow birch is heavy like rock maple or beech. Yellow birch is heavier green or dry in comparison, stronger and stiffer and not as easy to split. White birch is a dream to split, just the weight of the axe will make it fly apart.

Here's a yellow birch pic to throw ya off. ;D








This last pic is yellow birch seed catkin, looks like a cone. Anyone cutting firewood or logs in the fall of the year knows what it is to have those bust apart and rain down the back of your neck like confetti. :D

Those top limbs are way bigger than in the white birch crown pic above and the tree is 7 inches wider in diameter.

Standing way back the crown form will look almost identical to the white.

Anyway, that one is 25 inches on the woodlot. A yellow birch has a much more massive crown than a white birch when mature.

Here's an 18" white birch on my uncle's lot. It's starting to get big enough where the bark changes to a platey look like up on the big yellow birch pic. Same white birch as the one showing the crown above and beech thicket.

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chevytaHOE5674

Yeah large old yellow birch can get thick plate like bark. I usually leave those trees for wildlife, because they often have huge cavities in them.

Quebecnewf

 







Thanks for all the info it was real helpful. Here are a few pics from a few days ago. We now have a major snow and rain storm heading our way tonight so no in the woods for a few days to come
Rats

Quebecnewf

rebocardo

I call that firewood birch  ;)  I think out of all the woods to burn, white birch is my favorite because it splits so easy and is so light when dry and even 1/2 way green you can light it with a match to start a fire.


The-Burl-Hunter

to me it looks like a white birch or as i call them paper birch ( basically what everyone else has already said)  :D

SwampDonkey

No harm is saying it one more time.  ;D :D

I've never seen gray and white birch hybridize and they grow side by side on the same sites.
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

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