what type of birch would you say this is

[chevytaHOE5674]

maybe somone has a photo of white birch

Heres some pictures of white birches locally here. You can see the bark peals easily and finely.

[Quebecnewf]

I see in the second pic the same look to the birch as i see in the Quebec city region. In our region they look different. If you were to cut those trees would you be able to tell the wood from yellow birch. do you have a pic of yellow birch trees

Quebecnewf

[Kevin]

https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,30921.0.html

Yellow birch is a hardwood and much different, that's a white birch.

                       Yellow Birch

[chevytaHOE5674]

Heres the two side by side. The white/paper birch is very white. The yellow birch bark is a bronzish color.



Yellow birch.



Around here the white birch usually has straight smooth clear white sapwood, and a reddish heart. The yellow birch is stringy and more yellow in color, with a darker heart usually. Both are hardwoods.

[Kevin]

Yellow Birch must be a little harder.  :D

http://mb-soft.com/juca/print/firewood.html

[chevytaHOE5674]

Yellow birch has a higher specific gravity so it is a bit more dense. 

[SwampDonkey]

What Quebecnewf has is white birch. Gray birch doesn't peel and the limbs are wirey with warty branch tips. And besides gray birch doesn't grow way up there near Harrington Island. In Canada it grows only in the Maritimes (PEI, NS, NB) and upper Canada below the Great Lakes. Yellow birch however grows as far up as Anticosti Is, Sagueney Quebec region and the south western and south eastern of Newfoundland Is. where it is milder. Gray birch is considered a tall shrub here and non commercial, although harvested for pulp or firewood. Rarely larger the 10" before it dies out. It grows real fast compared to white birch. When we thin we have to be careful to leave the white birch that is growing in through it. Leaves are triangular and waxy with a single catkin, compared to white birch with larger dull leaves and 2 or 3 catkins (male). Don't confuse them with female seed catkins, anyway they (female) are much shorter on gray birch. We treat it mostly as weeds, like we would pin cherry. ;D

Gray birch



---------------------------

White birch




Wow look at the beech thicket in under there. : That's what ya get around here for cutting beech firewood and leaving too much maple overstory, beech thrive and kill out the sugar maple seedlings.  Couldn't begin to do a stem count is that brier patch. >:( A lot more overstory there than the picture shows. Those crowns in behind the birch are all sugar maple.

As far as the wood , there is no difference in the native birches when looking at grain. I can tell right away which is which between white and yellow birch because of weight. Yellow birch is heavy like rock maple or beech. Yellow birch is heavier green or dry in comparison, stronger and stiffer and not as easy to split. White birch is a dream to split, just the weight of the axe will make it fly apart.

Here's a yellow birch pic to throw ya off. ;D








This last pic is yellow birch seed catkin, looks like a cone. Anyone cutting firewood or logs in the fall of the year knows what it is to have those bust apart and rain down the back of your neck like confetti. :D

Those top limbs are way bigger than in the white birch crown pic above and the tree is 7 inches wider in diameter.

Standing way back the crown form will look almost identical to the white.

Anyway, that one is 25 inches on the woodlot. A yellow birch has a much more massive crown than a white birch when mature.

Here's an 18" white birch on my uncle's lot. It's starting to get big enough where the bark changes to a platey look like up on the big yellow birch pic. Same white birch as the one showing the crown above and beech thicket.

[chevytaHOE5674]

Yeah large old yellow birch can get thick plate like bark. I usually leave those trees for wildlife, because they often have huge cavities in them.

[Quebecnewf]

 







Thanks for all the info it was real helpful. Here are a few pics from a few days ago. We now have a major snow and rain storm heading our way tonight so no in the woods for a few days to come
Rats

Quebecnewf

[rebocardo]

I call that firewood birch  ;)  I think out of all the woods to burn, white birch is my favorite because it splits so easy and is so light when dry and even 1/2 way green you can light it with a match to start a fire.

[The-Burl-Hunter]

to me it looks like a white birch or as i call them paper birch ( basically what everyone else has already said)  :D

[SwampDonkey]

No harm is saying it one more time.  ;D :D

I've never seen gray and white birch hybridize and they grow side by side on the same sites.