Talk:Betula nigra

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Height vs. girth in discussing tree size: When we refer to a tree's size (such as "a small tree") does size always refer to height? I have an old river birch in my back yard that is around 25M tall, but it's still a giant tree, with the base of the trunk at around 8 ft. in diameter, and with each of the five individual trunk shoots at around 2-3 ft in diameter. I'm not sure that a 25M tree is necessarily small, maybe we should specify short, vs stout, etc. Reklawpj 20:49, 14 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Taxonomy/name problem

According to Birch, B. nigra is River Birch or Black Birch (both shared with Betula lenta), whereas Water Birch/Red Birch is Betula occidentalis (=? Betula fontinalis). Dysmorodrepanis 21:55, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Agreed; the above names also concur with USDA use (which is why they were so entered at Birch in the first place). I've sorted the mess out. - MPF 15:41, 1 November 2007 (UTC)