The birch genus has only
two species native to Alabama, sweet birch, Betula
lenta, and river birch, B nigra. These differ from most other birches by having
dark rather than nearly white bark like paper birch B. papyrifera, which is sometimes planted here as an ornamental although
only marginally tolerant of the heat this far south. Other notable species, both similar to sweet
birch, are yellow birch, B.
alleghaniensis, which is found as close as
Sweet birch in my
favorite due to the wintergreen oil present in the stems. This was the main source for natural wintergreen oil until
the destructive harvest became unsustainable and was switched to teaberry, Gaultheria procumbens, a prostrate member of the heath family that
includes blueberries (Vaccinium) and azaleas (Rhododendron). Yellow
birch has a lower concentration of wintergreen oil, but both these species of
birch are tapped for sap, which is used for both birch beer and birch syrup,
although the sugar concentration is less than that of maples (Acer) thus requiring
larger quantities of sap per gallon of syrup. The bark of
yellow birch has a yellow hue unlike that of sweet birch, which is reddish to
nearly black explaining the alternate common name cherry-bark birch due to resemblance to that if several species in the genus Prunus. The fall leaf color of both is yellow. The habitat of sweet birch is typically along
the brow of mountains or in canyons both here and in such places as the Sipsey Wilderness
Area. The champion sweet birch in
River birch has the most
southerly range of any birch and is the only birch native in