Photo: Tim King, CC0 · Wikimedia Commons

Heartleaf Paper Birch

Betula cordifolia

Also called mountain paper birch, heart-leaved paper birch, mountain white birch, heartleaf birch, Betula papyrifera var. cordifolia.

The white birch of the high mountains and the far North, with heart-shaped leaves, orange fall color and bark that peels in pinkish-white sheets.

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Saplings ship bare-root or in a pot, usually 12 to 18 inches tall, in the dormant season, and their height and age are stated here with the price, once available.

We grow it as saplings and seed. One email when it is listed with prices, and nothing else. Or ask, and we reply with what is ready now. Live plants ship February to May and October to November.

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Fall color

Type: Medium tree
Mature height: 50–65 ft
USDA zones: 2–6
Growth rate: Slow
Flowers: May to June
Fruit: Cones, August to October
First crop: 10 to 15 years
Mature spread: 25 ft
Sun: Full, Part
Soil moisture: Average
Grows wild in: The Appalachians, rocky ground and rich moist slopes
Native range: 14 states, north and west to Minnesota and south to North Carolina
List all 14
Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin
See what is native in your state

Hardiness zones Find your zone by ZIP code

Heartleaf paper birch is the white birch of the high mountains and the far Northeast, at home on cool, rocky slopes and in open forest near tree line. Its bark peels in paper-thin sheets, white to pinkish tan or bronze, and its leaves have heart-shaped bases. Long treated as a variety of paper birch, it is now often held a species of its own. Its southernmost stands, in the Black Mountains of North Carolina, grow farther south than any paper birch. Tennessee lists it as endangered. Plant it as a specimen on a cool, moist slope where summers stay mild.

Size, growth and what to expect

Heartleaf paper birch grows slowly, about a foot a year in our growth estimator. Side by side in Quebec, its seedlings reached 4 feet in five years where paper birch reached 10. It makes a tree of 50 to 65 feet with a narrow crown, and it stays shrubby on exposed summits. It appears to outlive paper birch, and trees on Mount Washington have passed 200 years.

Slender male catkins hang from the twig tips in May and early June, as the leaves unfold. The slender, hanging cones ripen in late summer and break apart in fall, scattering winged seed on the wind. In fall its leaves turn orange.

It grows wild from Newfoundland and Labrador across southern Quebec and Ontario to northeastern Minnesota. In the United States it ranges from Maine to Minnesota and south on high Appalachian peaks to Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee and North Carolina. Like paper birch, it is a tree of cold climates, so it does best where summers stay cool.

How to grow Heartleaf Paper Birch

Heartleaf paper birch grows in full sun or part shade, in a cool, moist soil, often rocky. Drought and hot summers stress it. Plant it 20 feet from a wall, and set trees 25 feet apart. Keep it more than 50 feet from overhead wires.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant in early spring or fall, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper, and put the native soil back in. Pick the cones in early fall, while they still hold together, and sow the seed at once on the surface of moist soil, barely covered, since light helps it sprout. For spring, hold it damp in the refrigerator for 4 to 8 weeks first. Seedlings want light shade their first summer.

Water weekly through the first two summers, and keep a mulch over the roots to hold the soil cool and moist. Keep grass and weeds back while it is young, since its seedlings grow slowly.

Male and female catkins grow on the same tree, and the wind carries the pollen. Its close relative paper birch sets some seed with its own pollen, but crosses between trees give far better seed, so plant two trees from different parents for seed. It may suffer less from insect attack than paper birch.

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

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