The River Birch Tree Story

It was an ordinary day.  Looking out my window at Woodcrest Villa and admiring the couple of River Birch trees that stand near our cottage.  The River Birch is a hardy tree as well as being more heat tolerant than most of their birch relatives, making them a good choice in many parts of the southern US.  I suppose that is why I wasn't very familiar with the tree until moving to Woodcrest a little over a year ago.  I just love the look of the bark on the tree, but I am finding that I am just one of very few to feel that way.  The River Birch, aka Betula Nigra, is also known as the Red Birch, Black Birch or even the Water Birch.  It is a fast growing heat tolerant native that is being used more and more in theme landscape.  Whether you choose to grow river birch as a single trunked tree or a multi-trunk clumping tree, you will appreciate its bark, pink or mahogany, that curls and exfoliates to reveal lighter, inner bark.  The dark green leaves turn a lovely butter yellow before falling.  The River Birch has good resistance to the bronze birch borer.  When I first saw the couple of River birch trees behind our villa I was stumped, since I had not seen many in the past.  At first I thought something was wrong with the tree since the bark was separating from the trunk and looked as if it was going to die.  But, the more I viewed th tree, the more I loved it's neat bark display.  I realize that many people don't like them due to the flaking bark, but it is something so unusual to me that I enjoy looking at them.  There ar close to a dozen or so different birch tree varieties, but I believe that I have found my all-time favorite with the River Birch.  Take a look at the trees near my villa and see if you too don't like the looks of the tree...espeially the bark formation.  PS - Yeah...I know they look as if they are dying and their bark is falling off...but, that is the way they are supposed to look.  They are so different than most other trees that I have seen during my lifetime.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.  The first three photos were taken in the spring and summer while the later three were recent photos.