Wild Plant Wednesday
Every week UBC Botanical Garden features a wild plant for our Wild Plant Wednesday social media features. In November, one of the plants we highlighted was Betula alleghaniensis.
Betula alleghaniensis, the yellow or golden birch, is the largest birch species in North America, reaching heights of 30 m. It can be found along waterways and in rich, moist hardwood forests in southeastern Canada and northeastern USA. A distinctive characteristic of Betula alleghaniensis (as well as the closely related Betula lenta) is the scent of wintergreen given off when its leaves and twigs are crushed. In the autumn, the tree turns a luminous golden yellow, as seen here. It is the provincial tree of Quebec, which is where our seeds were collected in 2007 at Mont-Christie, St. Saveur des Monts.
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