River Birch

Salmon and cream peeling bark that glows in winter light, fast growth in wet sites, and goldfinches in the seed catkins. river birch solves the wet corner beautifully.

River birch's most distinctive feature is its bark: peeling in sheets of salmon-pink, tan, and cream, changing color and texture through the seasons in a way that makes the trunk itself a year-round focal point. In winter, when everything else is gray and brown, the peeling multicolor bark of a river birch catches the light and reads as warm from twenty feet away. Plant it near water, near a window, near anywhere you look at in January. Fast-growing and adapted to wet sites, river birch fills the wet-corner role where most ornamental trees struggle. Catkins in early spring provide pollen when native bees are just waking up. Goldfinches work the seed catkins through fall and winter. Multi-stem forms are especially ornamental. One of the best tree choices for rain gardens, drainage areas, or the low corner of a property that's always wet.