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Bark smooth, in some species peeling into papery layers but not flaky; lenticels becoming conspicuously horizontally elongated with age; leaf-scars alternate, 2-ranked, semi-oval to crescent-shaped; stipule-scars narrow, often inconspicuous; bundle-scars in groups of 3 and rather inconspicuous; fruit a flat seed-like body borne in catkins, staminate catkins generally present on the tree in winter dangling from the branches. |
| 104. | Bark close, not easily separated into thin papery layers. | 105 |
| 104. | Bark easily separated into thin papery layers and generally peeling spontaneously. | 106 |
| 105. | Bark dark reddish brown; twigs with strong wintergreen taste. | Betula
lenta, Sweet or Black Birch |
| 105. | Bark chalk-white; twigs without wintergreen taste, generally roughened with resinous dots. | Betula
populifolia, Gray Birch |
| 106. | Outer layers of bark chalky-white. | 107 |
| 106. | Outer layers of bark not chalky-white. | 108 |
| 107. | Native species; bark peeling into strips; trunk usually white-colored to the base. | Betula
papyrifera, Paper Birch |
| 107. | European species; bark usually close; trunk often with blackened ridges at the base. | Betula
pendula, European White Birch |
| 108. | Bark reddish-brown to light pink, peeling when young and often blocky with age; rare and local in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, commonly cultivated elsewhere. | Betula
nigra, River or Red Birch |
| 108. | Bark dirty-yellow; common throughout New England. | Betula
alleghaniensis, Yellow Birch |