A medium-sized, intermediately tolerant tree on moist sites in the northestern US, the Lake States, and Appalachians. It is the most important and valuable of the native birches with quality hardwood. Leaves are 3-5" and ovate with a somewhat inequilateral base. Twigs are slender and smooth with a wintergreen taste. Buds are acute and ovate with ciliate margins. Fruit is an ovoid, erect strobile that is tardily deciduous. Bark is bronze to silvery, peeling into papery strips; becoming scaly.