Hi. I'm a new member from Vancouver, BC. I've been trying to figure out what type(s) of birch trees grow in the woods around the Lower Mainland. According to "Native Trees of Canada" and the BC Trees website provided by BCFS, the only birch that grows along the lower coast is the White Birch, Betula papyrifera. However, it is described as having white bark; and I have seen many local birches with dark, almost black bark, especially in shady places with tall conifers. In the North Shore woods, the dark ones seem to outnumber the white ones. The question is: are the dark-barked birches a different species or just a variety of Betula papyrifera? Thanks.
Paper birches start out with dark bark that peels to be replaced by white bark. Some individuals of the local variety may also perhaps effectively be dark-barked, limited in how quickly or extensively they turn white. European birches are abundant on the peat lands south of Vancouver. Possibly these cross with paper birches. B. occidentalis was collected in pioneer times from wetlands north of Seattle and near Everett; it still exists in a wetland east of Seattle (Bellefields) where it grows with and possibly crosses with European birches. So, there may be one or two areas up your way where this otherwise overwhelmingly continental climate species occurs as well. Probably both B. pendula and B. pubescens are naturalized in your province; certainly the former is present in quantity. B. pendula sports distinctive blackish "crayon markings" as the trunk ages.
I've also seen birch with deep brown, almost reddish bark, growing in wild areas. Almost look like Betula nigra, but more sheet peeling than curls. I do know, as Ron says, that birches cross readily, so even away from development there may be non-natives growing.
Even B. pendula starts out with dark bark, becoming white (marked with black) later. The locally native paper birches often appear more brown or duskier white/grayish than those from harsher climates elsewhere.
Ron, the one I've seen is more than a foot in diameter, and probably more than 50' tall, not a young tree. The bark looks more like Cherry bark, red-brown, translucent when it peels; here is an image of light through the bark-
Thanks for the replies. I read on one website that there are several varieties of Paper Birch that vary in bark color. Unfortunately, it didn't state what colors are present. The dark barked trees resemble the description of Water Birch, B. occidentalis, although I see lots of large trees that seem atypical of this normally diminutive species. Perhaps, as mentioned, these are hybrid specimens. I'm still not sure what we've got here. I don't think they are hybrids of European Birches, since I see them everywhere, including the most remote areas near the coast. I'll take a closer look at them when the trees leaf out later this year.
I just drove through Richmond yesterday and you can find Birch growing from #4 rd. and Alderbridge Way to #5 rd. and Westminster Hyw. The nature park in Richmond at the corner of #5 and Westminster Hyw. is a good place to view birch in a natural setting.
