Betula glandulosa to tall, often forming dense thickets. The trunks are slender, rarely over diameter, with smooth, dark brown bark. The leaves are nearly circular to oval, long and broad, with a toothed margin. The fruiting catkins are erect, long and broad. It is closely related to the dwarf birch ("Betula nana"), and is sometimes treated as a subspecies of it, as "B. nana" subsp. "glandulosa". It is distinguished from typical "B. nana" by the presence of glandular warts on the shoots and longer leaf petioles. Hybrids with several other birches occur. Betula glandulosa Betula glandulosa, the American dwarf birch, also known
Betula pendula continues from a lateral bud. The species is monoecious with male and female catkins found in the same tree. Some shoots are long and bear the male catkins at the tip, while others are short and bear female catkins. The immature male catkins are present during the winter but the female catkins develop in the spring, soon after the leaves unfurl. The leaves have short slender stalks and are long, triangular with broad, untoothed, wedge-shaped bases, slender pointed tips and coarsely double-toothed, serrated margins. They are sticky with resin at first but this dries as they age leaving small white