Species of ornamental and timber tree native to the northeastern part of North America. It is among the largest of birches, reaching 30 m (100 feet) on cool, moist bottomlands and on drier soils to elevations of 1,950 m. On limbs and young trunks the silvery yellow bark peels in paper-thin curls; on old trunks it is red-brown, deeply grooved, and broken into irregular plates. The pale green twigs are slightly aromatic. The hard, pale red-brown wood usually is not separated from that of sweet birch commercially.
