Native to Northern China, Korea, and Japan, Dahurian Birch is hardy to zone 5. Grows to 60' tall, deciduous, forms a rounded canopy with spreading branches and single or multiple trunks. Casts light shade. Dark green leaves 2" to 4" long, Very showy and interesting bark, similar to B. nigra bark. A good lawn tree that is easy to grow.

Dahurian Birch is resistent to Birch leafminer (Fenusa pusilla), a small sawfly whose larvae feed on tissue between the upper an lower leaf surfaces. Birches attacked by this insect may show no symptoms of decline for years after being attacked, but repeated leaf loss year after year can be fatal. [2]

• 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

[Family Betulaceae - Alders, Birches, Hornbeams]  [Trees Table of Contents]