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Himalayan birch
Betula alnoides
Betula alnoides (Chinese: 西桦; pinyin: xi hua; Thai: กำลังเสือโคร่ง, RTGS: kamlang suea khrong, literally: "tiger power") is a species of birch that is native to countries including Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand and Vietnam, at elevations of 300–2,100 m (1,000–7,000 ft) and higher in some cases (up to 2,700 m (9,000 ft)). It is the southernmost of all known birch species, whose natural range reaches approximately 12° N in Cardamom Mountains, Cambodia.
From the article Betula alnoides on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), quoted section by section
Description
The plant is 30 metres (98 ft) tall with white coloured branches. It has 1.5–3 centimetres (0.59–1.18 in) long petioles and has a 2.5–5.5 centimetres (0.98–2.17 in) long leaf blade that is lanceolate, ovate, papery, and even elliptic. The female inflorescences is a pendulous and cylindric raceme, that, by time it matures, reaches a diameter of 5–10 centimetres (2.0–3.9 in) by 4–6 millimetres (0.16–0.24 in). The peduncle is 2–3 millimetres (0.079–0.118 in) long while the diameter of the bracts is only 3 millimetres (0.12 in). The seeds are ripe from March to May and are 1.5–2 millimetres (0.059–0.079 in) long while the flowers bloom from October to January.
At the table
Betula alnoides inner bark is edible and is used for making cakes and bread. It is also considered to be an antidote against snakebites and is used to treat dislocated bones.
== References ==
Wikipedia: “Uses”
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Betula alnoides in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 437364.