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
White-winged vampire bat White-winged vampire bat The white-winged vampire bat ("Diaemus youngi"), a species of vampire bat, is the only member of the genus Diaemus. They are found from Mexico to northern Argentina and are present on the islands of Trinidad and Margarita. The white-winged vampire bat was described by Dutch zoologist Fredericus Anna Jentink in 1893. Dr. Charles Grove Young (1849-1934) is the eponym for the species name "youngi". Jentink decided to honor Young with the species name because "our Museum is indebted [to him] for so many additions to its collections of the British Guyana animals." When it was described by