Habitat

• native to Japan
• zone 5

Habit and Form

• 80' to 100' tall deciduous tree
• cultivated plants typically 40' to 60'
• generally pyramidal shape when younger
• becoming rounded and more irregular with age
• coarse texture

Summer Foliage

• leaves are the largest of the birches
• 3" to 6" long, up to 4" wide
• alternate, heart-shaped, doubly tooted, single arrangement leaves
• new leaves downy, maturing to glabrous dark green
• distinctly cordate leaf bases

Autumn Foliage

• yellow
• generally quite showy

Flowers

• blooms in April, but catkins visible before bloom
• monoecious: male catkins 4" to 5" long; female catkins up to 2.5", in racemes of two to four

Fruit

• nutlets held in cylindrical catkins

Bark

• when young it is smooth, somewhat shiny and bronze-colored
• mature bark ranges from gray to fairly good white, but the quality of white bark depends on the seed source

Culture

• a rare plant so limited cultural information has been developed
• appears to be easy to grow
• grows rapidly
• locate in full sun

Landscape Use

• a specimen tree
• lawn tree
• casts light shade
• for showy bark
• reported to be resistant to bronze birch borer which plagues other white barked birches

Liabilities

• not all plants sold in the trade are true B. maximowicziana
• good white bark color may not develop on all B. maximowicziana
• rare and difficult to locate for purchase
• probable not cold hardy at all beyond zone 5

ID Features

• very long leaves and coarse texture make it easy to distinguish from other birches
• dense pubescence on young leaves
• racemous female catkins
• distinctly cordate leaf bases

Propagation

• by seed

Cultivars/Varieties

• None