 | Arctic Moor Birch - Betula pubescens subspecies tortuosa
The Arctic Moor Birch occurs as a shrub or small tree, to 20 feet. It is native to Iceland, Greenland, Scandinavia and Northern Europe.
Also commonly called "Mountain Birch", this tree extends farther into the arctic than any other broadleaf tree.
Trees - Table of Contents |
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Leaves and Catkins |
The Arctic Moor Birch is a shrub or small tree, growing to 20 feet. It is native to Greenland, Scandinavia and protected inland valleys of Northern Europe. It is usually multi-trunked, with often interlacing, ascending branches. Twigs have numerous small resin glands. Leaf blade is ovate, rhombic-ovate, or suborbiculate-rhombic, 1-2 inches long, base cuneate to truncate, margins coarsely serrate or dentate, apex acute; surfaces abaxially moderately pubescent. Infructescences 1/2 inch; scales pubescent to glabrous, often ciliate, central lobe oblong or narrowly triangular, apex acute to obtuse, lateral lobes divergent and ascending, about equal in length but somewhat broader. Samaras with wings about equal in diameter to body, broadest near summit, usually extended beyond body apically. |
| Animals dependant on Birch- Moose: Important browse throughout most of range. Nutritional quality is poor in winter, but is important to wintering moose because of its sheer abundance in young stands.
- White-tailed Deer: though considered a "secondary-choice food", it is an important dietary component. In Minnesota, white-tailed deer eat considerable amounts of birch leaves in the fall.
- Snowshoe hare browse birch seedlings and saplings.
- Porcupines feed on the inner bark
- Beaver also eat it though generally prefer aspen, while willow and paper birch are second choice foods.
- Voles and shrews eat the seeds.
- Numerous birds and small mammals eat paper birch buds, catkins and seeds.
- Young paper birch stands provide prime deer and moose cover.
Birds: - Numerous cavity-nesting birds nest in birch, including woodpeckers, chickadees, nuthatches, and swallows.
- A favorite feeding tree of yellow-bellied sapsuckers, which peck holes in the bark to feed on the sap. Hummingbirds and red squirrels also feed at sap wells in paper birch created by sapsuckers.
- Ruffed grouse eat the catkins and buds.
- Redpolls, siskins, and chickadees obtain a considerable portion of their annual diet from birch seeds
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