Submitted by Betsy Washington, Northern Neck Chapter, Virginia Native Plant Society
As I write this in early December, most of the fall leaves have fallen from our deciduous trees and the architecture and bark of trees has taken center stage helping to brighten the landscape.
Birch trees are known for their colorful bark and our river birch, Betula nigra, is no exception with its exquisite pale pink to salmon exfoliating bark making it one of our most stunning and picturesque trees. Unlike most birches of our northern latitudes, river birches are native throughout Eastern North America from Massachusetts west to Minnesota extending south to Florida and Texas.
They are well adapted to the heat and humidity of the Southeast making them the perfect landscape birch tree for our area. In Virginia, river birches are common in the….
