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Betula mandshurica (Reg.) Nakai

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Betula mandshurica' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/betula/betula-mandshurica/). Accessed 2025-01-17.

Genus

Glossary

cuneate
Wedge-shaped.
glabrous
Lacking hairs smooth. glabrescent Becoming hairless.
subspecies
(subsp.) Taxonomic rank for a group of organisms showing the principal characters of a species but with significant definable morphological differentiation. A subspecies occurs in populations that can occupy a distinct geographical range or habitat.
variety
(var.) Taxonomic rank (varietas) grouping variants of a species with relatively minor differentiation in a few characters but occurring as recognisable populations. Often loosely used for rare minor variants more usefully ranked as forms.

References

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Betula mandshurica' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/betula/betula-mandshurica/). Accessed 2025-01-17.

Betula mandshurica

A small group of Betula mandshurica (of uncertain provenance) is the first birch into leaf at Mill House Arboretum, Shropshire, UK. 27 March 2023. Image Tom Christian.

?B. resinifera (Reg.) Britt. (see below); B. alba subsp. mandshurica Reg.; B. latifolia sens. Komar., in part, not Tausch; B. platyphylla auct., in part, not Sukachev; B. kenaica var. mandshurica (Reg.) Lindquist

B. mandshurica was described by Regel (as a subspecies) from specimens collected on Olga Bay in the Ussuri region of the Russian Far East, where it is near the north-eastern edge of its range. The type has glabrous leaves, but more commonly they are downy beneath, though less so than in the var. japonica, from which it also differs in the more cuneate leaf-base and the narrower wings of the nutlets. But the variety is not recognised by Jansson, who includes the Japanese white birch in B. mandshurica without distinction.

As pointed out under B. neoalaskana, the name B. resinifera (Reg.) Britt. is founded on a specimen collected in the Russian Far East, which must surely belong either to typical B. mandshurica or to its var. kamtschatica.

Betula mandshurica

A group grown as 'Betula japonica' at Thenford House, Northamptonshire, UK; May 2009. Image Owen Johnson.

Betula mandshurica

A seed-raised group of Betula mandshurica dating from 1984, Hokkaido provenance, at Stone Lane Gardens, Devon, UK (3rd December 2022). Image Julian Sutton.

Betula mandshurica

Bark of Betula mandshurica, Hokkaido provenance, (Stone Lane Gardens, Devon; 3rd December 2022). Image Julian Sutton.

Betula mandshurica

A particularly white-barked example of Betula mandshurica, Kuril Islands provenance, (Stone Lane Gardens, Devon; 3rd December 2022). Image Julian Sutton.

var. japonica (Miq.) Rehd.

Common Names
Japanese White Birch

Synonyms
B. alba var. japonica Miq.
B. japonica Sieb., not Thunb.
B. pendula var. japonica (Miq.) Rehd.
B. platyphylla var. japonica (Miq.) Hara
B. tauschii (Reg.) Koidz.
B. alba subsp. latifolia var. tauschii Reg.
B. kenaica var. japonica (Miq.) Lindquist

A tree to about 90 ft high in Japan, the trunk and main branches with a creamy white peeling bark; branchlets densely glandular when young, dark blackish or purplish brown. Leaves deltoidovate to rhombic-ovate, long-acuminate at the apex, truncate, rounded or cordate at the base, 2 to 3 in. long, 11⁄2 to 21⁄2 in. wide, usually doubly toothed, dull green and glabrous or with scattered hairs above, undersurface with small axillary tufts and elsewhere finely downy to glabrous; lateral veins in six to eight pairs; petiole slender 3⁄4 to 13⁄8 in. long. Fruiting catkins 1 to 11⁄4 in. long, about one-third as wide; bracts with a short central lobe and spreading, obovate lateral lobes. Wings of nutlet mostly broader than the rather narrow body.Native of the mountains of Japan in Hokkaido and the northern and central part of the main island, also of the Kuriles, Sakhalin and possibly Korea; introduced to Kew towards the end of the last century.

var. kamtschatica (Reg.) Rehd.

Synonyms
B. alba subsp. latifolia var. kamtschatica Reg.
B. platyphylla var. kamtschatica (Reg.) Hara
B. kamtschatica (Reg.) Jansson

This variety, which is not very distinct from the more pubescent forms of B. mandshurica, occurs on the Kamchatka peninsula and in the Ohotsk region. It is of botanical interest owing to the relationship claimed for it to the Kenai birch of Alaska (see in this supplement under B. papyrifera var. kenaica).

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