Culture

Best grown in acidic, moist to wet soils in full sun to part shade. Best in moist fertile soils. Consider using soaker hoses and bark mulches to keep the root zones cool and moist. Little pruning is needed, but if necessary, prune during the dormant season. Avoid pruning in spring when the sap is running because bleeding will occur. Tolerates flooding. Best growth occurs in USDA Zones 4-6.

Noteworthy Characteristics

Betula occidentalis, commonly known as water birch, is a shrubby tree of riparian woodlands that is most commonly found growing in clumps or thickets along rivers, streams, springs or other water courses in elevations to 8000’ from the Cascades, forested areas of Western Canada, and the Canadian Rockies south through the U.S. Rockies to New Mexico. It is often seen growing as a single to multi-stemmed shrub to 10-15’ tall, but sometimes rises to as much as 40-50’ tall as a multi-trunked tree with a broad, irregular, open crown.

Non-peeling bark is shiny, reddish-brown and marked with white horizontal streaks. Alternate, deciduous, broad-ovate leaves (each to 1-3” long) have rounded to wedge-shaped bases, blunt to sharp-pointed tips, 4-5 pairs of side veins and a double row of fine, sharp-pointed marginal teeth. Leaves are dark greenish yellow and shiny above, but paler and gland-dotted beneath.

Male and female flowers bloom in separate catkins on same plant in spring. The drooping brownish male catkins are larger (to 2.5” long) than the smaller more upright female catkins Fruiting cones (to 1.2” long) appear in late summer. Each cone containing numerous 3-lobed scales, with each scale enclosing a tiny winged seed.