Betula occidentalis odorless when scraped. The leaves are alternate, ovate to rhombic, long and broad, with a serrated margin and two to six pairs of veins, and a short petiole up to long. The flowers are wind-pollinated catkins long, the male catkins pendulous, the female catkins erect. The fruit is long and broad, composed of numerous tiny winged seeds packed between the catkin bracts. The identity of similar birches in Alaska is disputed; some include them in "B. occidentalis", while others regard them as hybrids between "Betula neoalaskana" and "Betula glandulosa". Some Plateau Indian tribes used water birch to treat pimples and
Chrysolepis three sweet, edible nuts, eaten by the indigenous peoples. The fruit also provides food for birds and wildlife. "Chrysolepis" is related to the subtropical southeast Asian genus "Castanopsis" (in which it was formerly included), but differs in the nuts being triangular and fully enclosed in a sectioned cupule, and in having bisexual catkins. "Chrysolepis" also differs from another allied genus "Castanea" (chestnuts), in nuts that take 14–16 months to mature (3–5 months in "Castanea"), evergreen leaves and the shoots having a terminal bud. There are two species of "Chrysolepis" — "Chrysolepis chrysophylla" and "Chrysolepis sempervirens" — which like many species