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Betula fruticosa
Also called Dwarf Bog Birch
Japanese bog birch is a slender, multi-stemmed shrub of cold, wet ground, reaching 2 to 3 metres tall, native to Siberia, northern China, Korea and Japan. It needs consistently moist to wet soil and cold winters to thrive.
Betula fruticosa, commonly known as dwarf bog birch or Japanese bog birch (traditional Chinese: 柴樺; simplified Chinese: 柴桦; pinyin: chái huà) is a species of dwarf birch native to southern Siberia and the Russian Far East, northern China, Mongolia, Korea, and Japan. In Japan it is found only in Tokachi Subprefecture on the island of Hokkaido. In China it grows in Heilongjiang, Inner Mongolia, and the Changbai Mountains of Jilin.
It grows on wet ground in peat bogs and boggy forests, streamsides, marshes, open subtundra forests, and on limestone rocks, typically from 600–1,100 metres (2,000–3,600 ft) elevation and at lower elevations at the northern end of its range. It grows in larch, larch-spruce, spruce-fir, and mixed forests. In northeastern Siberia and subalpine zones of mountains the species forms dwarf birch communities, typically mixed with cedar, Pinus pumila (Siberian dwarf pine or stlanik), and green alder. In subarctic areas it grows in river valleys and floodplain poplar forests, shrub thickets and steep slopes, and sheltered areas near the sea coast.
Betula utilis subsp. albosinensis · Yellow birch · Himalayan birch · Betula austrosinensis · Betula celtiberica · Chichibu Birch · China birch · Hearleaf Birch · Korean Birch · Asian Black Birch · Erman's Birch · Resin birch
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Betula fruticosa by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
