# Heartleaf Paper Birch (Betula 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.

Also called mountain paper birch, heart-leaved paper birch, mountain white birch, heartleaf birch, Betula papyrifera var. cordifolia. Category: Uncommon Yard Trees. Grown from seed by Blue Whale Trees. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/heartleaf-paper-birch/

![Heartleaf paper birch (Betula cordifolia) bark peeling in thin coppery pink and bronze sheets](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/plants/heartleaf-paper-birch-h1610-800.jpg)
*Photo: Tim King, CC0 · [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ABetula_cordifolia_411409061.jpg)*

## Facts

- Type: Medium tree
- Mature height: 50 to 65 ft
- USDA hardiness zones: 2 to 6
- Grows wild in: The Appalachians, rocky ground and rich moist slopes
- Native range: 14 states, north and west to [Minnesota](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MN) and south to [North Carolina](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NC) ([Connecticut](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=CT), [Maine](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=ME), [Massachusetts](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MA), [Michigan](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MI), [Minnesota](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MN), [New Hampshire](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NH), [New York](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NY), [North Carolina](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NC), [Pennsylvania](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=PA), [Tennessee](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=TN), [Vermont](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=VT), [Virginia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=VA), [West Virginia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=WV) and [Wisconsin](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=WI))
- Sun: Full, Part
- Soil moisture: Average
- Growth rate: Slow
- Flowers: May to June
- Fruit: Cones, August to October
- First crop: 10 to 15 years
- Mature spread: 25 ft
- Traits: Fall color
- Sold as: Saplings, Seed

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

## Availability

Saplings ship [bare-root](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/planting-bare-root-trees-on-arrival/index.html.md) or [in a pot](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/a-sapling-in-a-pot/index.html.md), [usually 12 to 18 inches tall](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/small-sapling-or-big-transplant/index.html.md), in the dormant season, and their height and age are stated with the price, once available. Live plants ship February to May and October to November. Not priced yet: leave an email on the web page for one email when it is priced, with a code for 10% off the plants in that order, not shipping or tax, or write to captain@bluewhaletrees.com.

## Notes

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.

## Sources

- [Flora of North America, vol. 3: Betula cordifolia](http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=233500247)
- [USDA Forest Service, Silvics of North America: Betula papyrifera, paper birch, Safford, Bjorkbom and Zasada](https://research.fs.usda.gov/silvics/paper-birch)
- [USDA Forest Service, Woody Plant Seed Manual: Betula chapter, Karrfalt](https://research.fs.usda.gov/download/treesearch/32626.pdf)
- [Clausen 1966, Studies of compatibility in Betula, USDA Forest Service North Central Forest Experiment Station Research Paper NC-6](https://research.fs.usda.gov/treesearch/14808)
- [Trees and Shrubs Online: Betula cordifolia](https://www.treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/betula/betula-cordifolia/)
- [Minnesota Wildflowers: Betula cordifolia, heart-leaved birch](https://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/tree/heart-leaved-birch)
- [Go Botany, Native Plant Trust: Betula cordifolia](https://gobotany.nativeplanttrust.org/species/betula/cordifolia/)
- [Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: Betula papyrifera var. cordifolia](https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=BEPAC2)
- [NatureServe Explorer: Betula cordifolia](https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.158851/Betula_cordifolia)
- [State lists: Tennessee](https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/environment/natural-areas/documents/na_tn-rare-plant-list.pdf)
- [NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: Betula papyrifera, paper birch](https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/betula-papyrifera/)
- [The Morton Arboretum: Paper birch](https://mortonarb.org/plant-and-protect/trees-and-plants/paper-birch/)

## Read before planting

- [Ten planting mistakes that quietly kill trees](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/ten-planting-mistakes/index.html.md)
- [Transplanting young trees: timing, water and protection](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/transplanting-young-trees/index.html.md)
- [Protecting young trees from voles, rabbits, deer and squirrels](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/protecting-trees-from-animals/index.html.md)
- [How fast every tree and shrub we grow gets tall: growth rate, A to Z](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/growth-rates/index.html.md)
- [Multistem or single stem? Sometimes the trunk is hiding the answer](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/multistem-or-single-stem/index.html.md)
- [Leaf litter, not wood chips, under the canopy](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/leaf-litter-not-wood-chips/index.html.md)

## Related

- Other birches (Betula) we grow: [Gray Birch](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/gray-birch/index.html.md), [River Birch](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/river-birch/index.html.md), [Sweet Birch (Black Birch)](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/sweet-birch/index.html.md), [Yellow Birch](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/yellow-birch/index.html.md)
- Under its canopy: [Roseshell Azalea](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/roseshell-azalea/index.html.md), [Catawba Rhododendron](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/catawba-rhododendron/index.html.md) and [Cinnamon Clethra](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/cinnamon-clethra/index.html.md)
- [Planting-site check](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md): for a thrive, struggle or fail verdict on Heartleaf Paper Birch, add ?species=heartleaf-paper-birch with zone (2 to 10), sun (full, part, shade) and moisture (dry, average, wet) to that address; for example, the verdict for zone 2, part sun and average soil as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md?species=heartleaf-paper-birch&zone=2&sun=part&moisture=average
- [Companion species for Heartleaf Paper Birch](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=heartleaf-paper-birch): the natives that share its ground and the plants that pair with it in a yard.
- [Transplant planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/transplant/index.html.md?species=heartleaf-paper-birch): whether Heartleaf Paper Birch can be moved and what the move takes, the root ball, its weight, who can lift it and the months, as Markdown at that address (add caliper= or height=, month= 1 to 12 and soil= sandy, loam or clay)
- [Growth estimator](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md): how the height and trunk projections are made; the estimate for Heartleaf Paper Birch as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md?species=heartleaf-paper-birch (add height=, years= and site= poor, average or good)
- [Seed sowing planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md): how Heartleaf Paper Birch is sown, in the chart for every species (treatment, cold days, depth, timing); the dated plan for it as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md?species=heartleaf-paper-birch (add state= and zone= for your own frost dates, method=fridge for the refrigerator route)
- [Pollination planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md): what Heartleaf Paper Birch needs for a crop and how many to plant, in the table for every species; the verdict for 2 of them as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md?plants=heartleaf-paper-birch:2
- [Planting-window tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md): when to plant Heartleaf Paper Birch where you live, as a fall and a spring window from the local frost dates; the windows as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md?species=heartleaf-paper-birch&state=MO&zone=6 with your own state and zone in place of those
- [Planting-distance tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md): how far Heartleaf Paper Birch goes from a house, a septic field, a walk, wires, a property line and the next tree; the distances as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md?species=heartleaf-paper-birch&near=house,septic,pavement,wires,boundary,tree
- [Bloom and fruit calendar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md): the months Heartleaf Paper Birch flowers and fruits, in the grid for every species; its own row and the gaps of a planting with it as Markdown at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md?plants=heartleaf-paper-birch