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Betula pendula var. parvibracteata

(Abedul)

Overview

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Endangered

Threat status

Interesting Facts

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Common Names

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Common Names in Spanish:

Abedul

Description

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Family Betulaceae

Trees or shrubs deciduous, monoecious. Stipules present, free , often deciduous, rarely persistent . Leaves alternate, simple , petiolate , usually doubly serrate, rarely simply serrate, lobulate , or entire; veins pinnate. Flowers unisexual . Male inflorescence precocious , elongate , pendulous, with numerous overlapping bracts; each bract usually subtending a small dichasium with 1-3 male flowers; stamens as many as and opposite sepals or, if sepals obsolete , then stamens of inflorescence to 20; filaments very short, connate or nearly so; anthers 2-loculed, thecae connate or separate, opening by longitudinal slits. Female inflorescence pendulous or erect , with numerous overlapping bracts; each bract subtending a small dichasium with 2 or 3 flowers; calyx with 1-6 scalelike lobes , or obsolete; petals absent; ovary inferior, 2-loculed; styles 2, free; ovules 2, or 1 by abortion , pendulous from near apex of each locule. Fruit a nut or nutlet , winged or not. Seed 1, with straight embryo and flat or thickened cotyledons, without endosperm.

Six genera and 150-200 species: mainly in Asia, Europe, and North and South America; six genera (one endemic) and 89 species (56 endemic) in China.

Because of evolutionary divergence within the Betulaceae, the family has often been divided into tribes (i.e. , Betuleae, Carpineae, and Coryleae) or more recently into subfamilies (J. J. Furlow, J. Arnold Arbor . 71: 1-67. 1990) .[1]

Genus Betula

Trees or shrubs , to 30 m ; trunks often several, branching excurrent, becoming deliquescent. Bark of trunks and branches dark brown to chalky white, smooth , often exfoliating; lenticels dark, prominent , sometimes horizontally expanded. Wood nearly white to reddish brown, light and soft to moderately heavy and hard, texture fine. Branches, branchlets , and twigs nearly 2-ranked; young twigs differentiated into long and short shoots , sometimes with taste and odor of wintergreen. Winter buds sessile, slender, terete , apex acute; scales several, imbricate, smooth. Leaves mostly on short shoots, nearly 2-ranked. Leaf blade ovate to deltate, elliptic , or nearly orbiculate, 0.5--10(--14) × 0.5--8 cm, thin, margins doubly serrate or serrate (or crenate to shallowly round-lobed in dwarf northern species) ; surfaces glabrous to tomentose , sometimes abaxially resinous-glandular. Inflorescences: staminate catkins mostly terminal on branchlets, solitary or in small racemose clusters , formed previous growing season and often exposed during winter, expanding with leaves; pistillate catkins proximal to staminate catkins, mostly solitary, erect , ovoid to cylindric , firm; scales and flowers crowded, enclosed within buds during winter, expanding with leaves. Staminate flowers in catkins 3 per scale; stamens (1--) 2--3(--4), filaments divided below anthers , nearly to base . Pistillate flowers (1--) 3 per scale. Infructescences erect or pendulous; scales usually deciduous with release of fruits (although persisting into winter in a few species), (1--) 3-lobed, thickened or leathery but not woody. Fruits samaras, lateral wings 2, moderately wide to broad, membranaceous . x = 14.

Species ca. 35 (18 sp: throughout n temperate , boreal, and arctic zones of the Northern Hemisphere; North America, Asia.

Birches, like alders, are common trees and shrubs of northern temperate and boreal zones of the Northern Hemisphere. Like Alnus, the group is highly diversified, especially in the Old World. The species are well known for their free hybridization, and specimens are therefore frequently difficult to identify. Birches occupy habitats in cool, moist regions, including peatlands, stream banks, and lakeshores, cool, damp woods, and moist slopes in cool coves . The wood of species that grow to a large size (including especially B . alleghaniensis ) has many uses, including the manufacture of doors and windows , flooring, cabinetry, interior molding, wood paneling, furniture, and plywood.

Betula sect. Costatae (Regel) Koehne consists of large, mesophytic trees, often with dark, close or exfoliating bark, large thin leaves, infructescence scales with long narrow lobes , and fruits with narrow wings. North American representatives of this group include Betula alleghaniensis, B. lenta, and B. nigra. The mostly circumboreal Betula sect. Betula consists of small to medium trees with rather large thin leaves and fruits with wide wings (wider than the fruit body). A characteristic feature of trees in this group is their white bark that often peels apart in sheets. These include the familiar paper birch, B. papyrifera, and its European counterpart, B. pubescens, as well as the common eastern B. neoalaskana. A third line , Betula sect. Humiles W. D. Koch, consists of dwarf shrubby species of the cold circumpolar region. In North America this section is represented by B. glandulosa, B. pumila, and B. nana.

Birches are a difficult group taxonomically because of their high vegetative variability and frequent hybridization. Many morphologic and cytologic studies have attempted to deal with variation within the genus or its subgroups. Species of Betula form a polyploid series, with chromosome numbers of 2 n = 28, 56, 70, 84, and 112, plus additional numbers in some hybrids. This and other research in the genus has been reviewed by J. J. Furlow (1990).[2]

Habitat

Biome: Terrestrial [3].

Ecology: Lowland dry forest .[3].

Taxonomy

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Notes

Publishing author : G.Moreno & Peinado Publication : Anales Jard. Bot. Madrid 45(1): 359 1988 .

Basionym : Betulaceae Betula parvibracteata Peinado, G.Moreno & A.Velasco

Basionym author: (Peinado, G.Moreno & A.Velasco)

Similar Species

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Members of the genus Betula

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 123 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus. Here are just 100 of them:

B. alba pubescens (Birches) · B. albosinensis (Chinese Red Birch) · B. alleghaniensis (Curly Birch) · B. alleghaniensis Britton var. alleghaniensis Britton (Yellow Birch) · B. alleghaniensis Britton var. macrolepis (Fern.) Brayshaw (Yellow Birch) · B. alnus-incana (Mountain Alder) · B. alpestris (Birch) · B. apoiensis (Birch) · B. apoiensis 'Mount Apoi' (Birch) · B. caerulea (Blue Birch) · B. davurica (Dahurian Birch) · B. dugleana (Dugle's Birch) · B. dutillyi (Dutilly's Birch) · B. eastwoodiae (Eastwood's Birch) · B. ermanii (Gold Birch) · B. ermanii var. japonica (Erman´s Birch) · B. glandulosa (Resin Birch) · B. grossa (Japanese Cherry Birch) · B. hornei (Horne's Birch) · B. jackii (Jack's Birch) · B. jacquemontii 'Whitespire' (White Birch) · B. lenta (Black Birch) · B. lenta lenta (Cherry Birch) · B. lenta uber (Virginia Round-Leaf Birch) · B. mandshurica (Japanese White Birch) · B. maximowicziana (Monarch Birch) · B. michauxii (Michauxs Birch) · B. minor (Dwarf White Birch) · B. murrayana (Murray's Birch) · B. nana (Bog Birch) · B. nana perfiljevii (Arctic Dwarf Birch) · B. nana rotundifolia (Arctic Dwarf Birch) · B. nana tundrarum (Arctic Dwarf Birch) · B. nana 'Walter Ingwersen' (Bog Birch) · B. neoalaskana (Alaska Paper Birch) · B. neoborealis (Northern Birch) · B. nigra (Red Birch) · B. nigra bnmtf (Dura Heat) · B. nigra 'Cully' (River Birch) · B. nigra 'Duraheat' (Duraheat River Birch) · B. nigra 'Dura Heat' (River Birch) · B. nigra 'Fox Valley' (Little King River Birch) · B. nigra 'Heritage' (Heritage Birch) · B. nigra'Moonshine' (River Birch) · B. nigra 'Summer Cascade' (Summer Cascade Birch) · B. nigra 'Suwanee' (River Birch) · B. nigra 'Tecumseh Compact' (River Birch) · B. occidentalis (Black Birch) · B. pamirica (Pamir Birch) · B. papyrifera (Canoe Birch) · B. papyrifera commutata (Western Paper Birch) · B. papyrifera cordifolia (Mountain Paper Birch) · B. papyrifera kenaica (Kenai Birch) · B. papyrifera Marshall var. papyrifera (Paper Birch) · B. papyrifera var. Cordifolius (Paper Birch) · B. papyrifera 'Renaissance Reflection' (Canoe Birch) · B. pendula (Abedul) · B. pendula fontqueri (Abedul) · B. pendula 'Avalanche' (Birch) · B. pendula 'Dalecarlica' (Dalecarlica Swedish Birch) · B. pendula 'Dark Prince' (Purple Birch) · B. pendula 'Fastigiata' (White Birch) · B. pendula 'Filigree Lace' (European Birch) · B. pendula 'Gracilis' (Weeping Birch) · B. pendula 'Laciniata' (Cutleaf European White Birch) · B. pendula 'Monle' (Purple Rain ® European White Birch) · B. pendula 'Trost's Dwarf' (Cutleaf Birch) · B. pendula 'Youngii' (Young's Weeping European White Birch) · B. platyphylla (Asian White Birch) · B. platyphylla kamtschatica (Japanese White Birch) · B. platyphylla platyphylla (Japanese White Birch) · B. platyphylla platyphylla var. platyphylla (Japanese White Birch) · B. platyphylla Sukatczev var. szechuanica (C.K.Schneid.) Rehder (Szechuan White Birch) · B. platyphylla 'Whitespire' (Whitespire Japanese White Birch) · B. populifolia (Gray Birch) · B. populifolia 'Whitespire' (Whitespire Japanese White Birch) · B. pubescens (Downy Birch) · B. pubescens czerepanovii (Downy Birch) · B. pubescens Ehrh. var. pubescens (White Birch) · B. pubescens tortuosa (Mountain Birch) · B. pumila (Bog Birch) · B. pumila glandulifera (Bog Birch) · B. pumila var. glabra Regel (Bog Birch) · B. pumila var. pumila L. (Bog Birch) · B. pumila var. renifolia Fern. (Bog Birch) · B. purpusii (Purpus' Birch) · B. raddeana (Megruli Arki) · B. raymundii (Raymund's Birch) · B. sandbergi (Sandberg's Birch) · B. sandbergii (Sandberg's Birch) · B. saposhnikovii (Saposhnikovii Birch) · B. sargentii (Sargent's Birch) · B. uliginosa (Birch) · B. utahensis (Northwestern Paper Birch) · B. utilis (Chinese Red Birch) · B. utilis var. Jacquemonti (White Barked Himalayan Birch) · B. utilis var. jacquemontii (White Barked Himalayan Birch) · B. utilis var. jacquemontii 'Jermyns' (White-Stemmed Birch) · B. utilis var. jacquemontii 'Silver Shadow' (White-Stemmed Birch) · B. utilis 'Forrest's Blush' (Forrest's Blush White-Stemmed Birch)

More Info

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Further Reading

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Notes

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Contributors

Identifiers

Footnotes

  1. Pei-chun Li & Alexei K. Skvortsov "Betulaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 4 Page 286. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  2. "Betula". in Flora of North America Vol. 3. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  3. Vivero, J.L. et al. 1998. Betula pendula var. parvibracteata. In: IUCN 2011. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.2. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 30 January 2012. [back]
Last Revised: 7/29/2012