Many thanks to Jeff Ollerton and HB for giving me the identity of this tree.
It just so happened that at the same time I was trying to identify the tree, we walked by Barbara’s house. She grows many bonsai trees. “Clearly it’s a River Birch,” she says, “compare it to my little River Birch on the left.”
This leaf shows a wedge-shaped base typical of the River Birch.
The weird thing about the leaf is that there are two different shapes. This one shows a more squarish base. That really threw me when trying to identify the type of tree. Both leaves are from the same tree. Does the age of the leaf determine the shape?
May 13, 2015…Looking at a bunch of leaves together, we can see various wedge shaped bases…some more acute than others.
May 13, 2015…Looking upward into the umbrella, you can see the white bark limbs…
…but looking at the trunk, you’ll see cinnamon colored bark.
According to Wikipedia, “Betula nigra (black birch, river birch, water birch) is a species of birch native to the Eastern United States from New Hampshire west to southern Minnesota, and south to northern Florida and west to Texas.”
It grows in the East, not the West. I guess the jury is still out on the type of birch it is.
5-13-15…Big news today: A ginormous swarm is moving INTO my Grand Kids Log hive today! Detailed post to follow.
Adventures in Natural Beekeeping 
So a birch after all, I was convinced otherwise, but then I only really have silver birch as a reference. Good to know it’s identity.
The silver birch are really pretty trees. I’m not totally convinced this is a river birch though, because of the area it’s usually grown in…southeastern US. Ahem, I’m in the Pacific Northwest. What is it doing here? I might have to do a little more research. 🙂
The swarm must have been great to watch. Amelia
We were out there all afternoon, watching the bees slowly make their way towards the log hive area. At first it looked like another tiny swarm, but as more and more landed, I realized it was a big one…
I think watching bees is hypnotic and infectious!
I’ll tell that to my customers…if I have any left. 🙂
It was so great to watch, I didn’t get much print work done. Then there was another swarm today. This one issued out of Bee-atrice log hive. Since it was in a low tree and easy to get, and since a beekeeper up the way had his bees abscond from his hive at just about this time last year, at the same time that I got a big swarm, I gave him this swarm. It’s possible it is a daughter hive of the one I got last year.
What a nice beekeeper you are!
Pretty tree! Keep us updated on the swarm. That’s quite exciting!
Just try and stop me… 🙂
Lovely tree – I have one in my ‘pot ghetto’ area ready to be planted out. If it is B. nigra, then they can take a lot more humidity than the usual silver birches…in fact here in Australia it was marketed as the ‘tropical’ birch (given its range in Nth florida)
Lovely leaves and lovely bark. I’ve updated your entry on the Loose and Leafy Tree Following Page to Betula Nigra. If it turns out to be a different kind of birch we can change it again! http://looseandleafy.blogspot.co.uk/p/what-is-tree-following-and-list-of-tree.html
Sounds like a good idea.