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Betula Occidentalis

The Betula Occidentalis is commonly known as Black Birch, Mountain Birch, Red Birch, Rocky Mountain Birch, Spring Birch, as well as Water Birch

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Growing Regions

Water birch is distributed from southern Alaska to southern Manitoba and North Dakota, and south to southern California and New Mexico [31]. It is absent along the Pacific Coast mountain ranges [1]. In California, water birch is found mainly on the east side of the southern Sierra Nevada Mountains, with only a few isolated colonies on the west side [13], and is mostly lacking from the central and northern Sierra Nevada Mountains [39].

     

General Information

The currently accepted scientific name of water birch is Betula occidentalis Hooker [12,22,46]. There are no recognized subspecies, varieties, or forms. In eastern Washington, northeastern Oregon, western Idaho, and southern British Columbia, water birch hybridizes with paper birch (Betula papyrifera) producing many intermediate forms which appear to be well established locally [20]. 

Water birch is most often found in riparian woodland communitiesqq
characterized by cottonwoods (Populus spp.), willows (Salix spp.),
alders (Alnus spp.), and box elder (Acer negundo) [15,21,25,35,47].
These communities often occur as narrow bands adjacent to streams on
alluvial terraces throughout the mountainous West in the Douglas-fir
(Pseudotsuga menziesii), ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa), or Engelmann
spruce (Picea engelmannii) zones but may extend well into big sagebrush
(Artemisia tridentata) flats [18,30,34,47].  Water birch also grows in
riparian communities in the Mojave Desert of California [13].  In North
Dakota, aspen (Populus tremuloides)/water birch habitat types are found
on relatively steep northeast- to east-facing slopes of upland ravines
[16].

Published classification schemes listing water birch as a dominant part
of the vegetation in community types (cts), habitat types (hts),
riparian site types (rst), or dominance types (dts) are presented below.

    Area              Classification                Authority

ND: Theodore           general veg. hts          Hansen, Hoffman, 
Roosevelt Natl Park                              and Bjugstad 1984

seMT,swND,nwSD,neWY:   upland forest &           Hansen, Hoffman, 
Missouri Plateau       woodland veg. hts         and Steinauer 1984

MT,WY: Bighorn Canyon  general veg. cts          Knight & others 1987
Natl Rec Area

WY                     riparian veg. cts         Olson and Gerhart 1982

CO                     general veg. cts          Baker 1984

MT                     riparian veg. dts         Hansen, Chadde, and
                                                 Pfister 1988

swMT                   riparian veg. rst,cts,hts Hansen, Pfister, Joy
                                                 [and others] 1989

Much of the information presented here is attributed to:
Uchytil, Ronald J. 1989. Betula occidentalis. In: Fire Effects Information System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available at USDA Forest Service.

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