Feller Landscape Group
Serving the Chicagoland counties of DuPage, Kane and Northern Cook. Over 25 years of experience!
...Where Imagination and Design Unite...
The Feller Landscape Group
Our choice for the plant of the month...
Betula nigra
River Birch
River birch grows all the way from
southern New Hampshire to the Texas Gulf Coast. The tree is very
heat-tolerant and reaches its maximum size in rich alluvial soils of the
lower Mississippi Valley. River birch is well named as it loves
riparian zones and adapts well to wet sites. The tree's wood has very
little commercial value but river birch is extremely popular as an
ornamental and was selected the Urban Tree of the Year in 2002.
Today birches are grown and sold for their ornamental landscape use, but back in colonial times the Indians as well as the early settlers had many uses for them.
The Indians not only constructed canoes and wigwams from Betula trees but used the leaves steeped in hot water to relieve headaches and ease rheumatism. Poultices of boiled bark were used to aid in the healing of burns, wounds and bruises.