Sweet Birch
Betula lenta
Summary 6
Betula lenta (sweet birch, also known as black birch, cherry birch, mahogany birch, or spice birch) is a species of birch native to eastern North America, from southern Maine west to southernmost Ontario, and south in the Appalachian Mountains to northern Georgia.
The leaves of this species serve as food for some caterpillars and the solitary leaf-cutter bee Megachile rubi cuts pieces from the leaves to line the cells of its nest.[6]
Deer do not tend to browse young B. lenta allowing trees to grow in areas with high deer populations, Betula alleghaniensis, a close relative of B. lenta, is, however, heavily browsed by deer. This accounts for a lack of B. alleghaniensis and an abundance of B. lenta where deer populations are high. In abandoned fields, B. lenta is often thicket forming and protects trees not resistant to deer browsing.
Sources and Credits
- (c) Rob Curtis, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), uploaded by Rob Curtis
- (c) Sara Rall, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Sara Rall
- (c) Katja Schulz, some rights reserved (CC BY), https://www.flickr.com/photos/treegrow/30316536233/
- (c) Katja Schulz, some rights reserved (CC BY), https://www.flickr.com/photos/treegrow/30980173802/
- (c) maddie_b, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by maddie_b
- Adapted by Tom Pollard from a work by (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betula_lenta
More Info
- iNat taxon page
- Biodiversity Heritage Library
- BOLD Systems BIN search
- eFloras.org
- Flora of North America (beta)
- Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)
- Go Botany
- HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants
- IPNI (with links to POWO, WFO, and BHL)
- Maryland Biodiversity Project
- NatureServe Explorer 2.0
- Ontario Trees
- SEINet Symbiota portals
- Tropicos
- USDA PLANTS database
- VASCAN by Canadensys
- World Flora Online
