Thursday March 9, 2023 9:14am
30°F cloudy skies with a clear view of the overlook, brisk breeze
Paper Birch- Betula Papyrifera
My tree is not one of its lookalikes, gray, river, or yellow birch, because it has the characteristic peeling white bark with orange-brown colored bark on the underside. The buds on my tree also most closely resembled paper birch buds.
Tree Phenology: The twigs are just starting to form buds. No evidence of flowering.
Identification Process:
I started my identification process by looking for red maples originally, however, I did not find any. I quickly found the paper birch I choose, as shown above. My tree stands out against the other trees at Ethan Allen Park with its stark white, peeling bark. I examined the twigs to confirm my identification and they matched closely with the descriptions of paper birch twigs. Finally, I used SEEK from iNaturalist to confirm my identification before uploading a photo to iNaturalist.