Sweet Birch

Scratch a twig. that wintergreen scent is the most memorable thing about this tree, and the golden fall color stays for weeks on a mountain slope.

Scratch a twig of sweet birch and smell it: wintergreen, clean, unmistakable. The scent comes from methyl salicylate in the bark and twigs, the same compound that flavored birch beer and root beer before synthetic wintergreen replaced it. It's one of those sensory experiences that makes you stop and smell something twice. Every time someone encounters sweet birch in the field, they're surprised by it. Dark, cherry-like bark when young, more dramatic than the white birches, developing plates with age. Golden yellow fall color runs two to three weeks. Goldfinches and chickadees work the seed catkins through fall and winter. Well suited to cool, moist woodland slopes and stream edges in the northern part of the region. Less heat-tolerant than river birch, but more graceful in mountain and upper Piedmont conditions.