Weeping White Birch is a small to medium sized tree that typically grows to 30 to 40 feet tall with a pyramidal to oval rounded crown. It is a lovely tree noted for its white bark, which exfoliates in papery strips, its drooping or pendulous branches and glittering glossy green leaves.
Ovate, glabrous, toothed, glossy green leaves to 2 1/2 inches long have long tapered tips, turning yellow in the fall. Tiny monoecious flowers appear in early spring in separate catkins on the same tree. Yellowish-brown male flowers in drooping catkins to 2 1/2 inches long and greenish female flowers in smaller, upright catkins to 1 1/4 inches long. Female flowers are followed by drooping cone-like fruits containing numerous small winged seeds that typically mature in late summer.
Weeping White Birch is native to Europe and Asia Minor where it typically occurs in wood margins, heaths, hills and slopes. It has been widely planted in Canada and the northern U.S. as an ornamental where it thrives in cool northern summers.
