Betula glandulosa
Sponsor
Kindly sponsored by the Banks family in memory of Lawrence Banks CBE DL VMH
Credits
Hugh A. McAllister, Kenneth Ashburner, Paul Bartlett & Martin Deasy (2026)
Recommended citation
McAllister, H. A., Ashburner, K., Bartlett, P. & Deasy M. (2026), 'Betula glandulosa' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Common Names
- Bog Birch
- Arctic Dwarf Birch
- Dwarf Birch
- Resin Birch
- bouleau glanduleux
Synonyms
- Betula rotundifolia Spach
- Betula glandulosa f. typica Kurtz
- Betula nana var. sibirica Ledeb.
- Betula glandulosa var. sibirica (Ledeb.) C.K.Schneid.
- Betula exilis Sukaczev
- Betula nana subsp. exilis (Sukaczev) Hultén
- Chamaebetula glandulosa (Michx.) Opiz
Other taxa in genus
- Betula alleghaniensis
- Betula alnoides
- Betula ashburneri
- Betula bomiensis
- Betula × caerulea
- Betula calcicola
- Betula celtiberica
- Betula chichibuensis
- Betula chinensis
- Betula cordifolia
- Betula corylifolia
- Betula costata
- Betula cylindrostachya
- Betula davurica
- Betula delavayi
- Betula ermanii
- Betula fargesii
- Betula fruticosa
- Betula globispica
- Betula gmelinii
- Betula grossa
- Betula gynoterminalis
- Betula humilis
- Betula kweichowensis
- Betula lenta
- Betula luminifera
- Betula lutea
- Betula maximowicziana
- Betula medwediewii
- Betula megrelica
- Betula michauxii
- Betula microphylla
- Betula middendorffii
- Betula murrayana
- Betula nana
- Betula nigra
- Betula occidentalis
- Betula ovalifolia
- Betula papyrifera
- Betula pendula
- Betula populifolia
- Betula potaninii
- Betula pumila
- Betula raddeana
- Betula schmidtii
- Betula skvortsovii
- Betula tianschanica
- Betula utilis
- Betula utilis subsp. albosinensis
- Betula utilis subsp. jacquemontii
- Betula utilis subsp. occidentalis
- Betula utilis subsp. utilis
Editorial Note
This TSO article is an edited digest of the species account in Kenneth Ashburner and Hugh McAllister, The Genus Betula: A Taxonomic Revision of Birches (2013; repr. 2016).
Trees and Shrubs Online, 23 June 2026
Shrub with prostrate to spreading to erect habit up to 3 m in height, but often under 1 m in exposed situations. Twig persistently finely (0.05 mm) puberulent-hairy, often initially with a few longer silky hairs, resinous-warty with reddish-brown glands covered with translucent whitish resin. Bud brown, blunt, oblong-ovoid, wider than twig, c. 3 × 1.5 mm. Petiole to 5 mm. Leaf obovate to orbicular, glabrescent, leaf blade to 30 × 25 mm with 2–6 pairs of veins and (5)9–13(16) crenate teeth on each side, initially abaxially densely glandular but glands falling, base cuneate to truncate. Male catkins terminal, about 9 × 3.5 mm. Fruiting catkins with pedicel to 9 mm, to 15 × 5 mm, erect; seed < 2 mm. Diploid: 2n=28, occasionally 2n=56.
Distribution Canada Alberta, British Columbia, Labrador, Manitoba, Mongolia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Québec, Saskatchewan, Yukon Russia Siberia United States Alaska, California, Colorado, Idaho, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wyoming Greenland
Habitat Arctic and alpine tundra, whether wet or dry, exposed summits, peat bogs and streamsides.
Betula glandulosa is another of the group of shrubby birches in section Apterocaryon, distributed from southwest Greenland westwards through the whole of northern North America and across the Bering Strait into Siberia as far west as the Lena-Yenisey watershed and the Altai Mountains. It favours dry, exposed places such as rocky barrens and mountain tops, which it illuminates in autumn with its brilliantly coloured foliage, and also occupies gaps and clearings in coniferous forest. The species was described by André Michaux (1803) from specimens collected southeast of Hudson Bay.
Betula glandulosa can be recognised by its very resinous warty shoots with very fine (to 0.05 mm long) puberulence, and small, gland-dotted, reniform to obovate, crenately toothed leaves. It is closest in appearance to Betula nana, from which it differs in the glandular-warted branchlets and longer-stalked leaves, and in the often solitary terminal male catkins (Hjelmqvist 1948) and non-persistent stipules.
Flora of North America (Furlow 1997) distinguishes Betula nana subsp. exilis and B. glandulosa as distinct taxa with a broad zone of intermediates and hybrids where they overlap. However, McAllister and Ashburner (2013) follow other authors in viewing B. nana subsp. exilis as a dwarf, northern variant of B. glandulosa (Moss & Packer 1983; Porsild & Cody 1980; Fries in Hultén & Fries 1986). Similarly, they question the widespread existence in the Rocky Mountains of hybrid populations between diploid B. glandulosa and tetraploid B. pumila (B. × sargentii Dugle) (Furlow 1997; De Groot, Thomas & Wein 1997) on the grounds of incompatible chromosome number, considering these to fall within B. glandulosa.
Cultivation requirements are as for Betula nana, though Betula glandulosa has been found harder to grow: in cultivation at Ness Botanic Garden most provenances grew poorly, usually losing their leaves in June and producing a second flush in July. Material originating from lower latitues might be expected thrive better in cultivation in temperate climates.