Contains 4 genera and 4 accepted taxa overall.
This family is completely databased for all specimens.
Characteristics
BETULACEAE
Dicot
-
Classification
FAGALES
BETULACEAE
[Family identification key]
1. Winter buds stalked; leaf blade broadly elliptic to obovate; female inflorescence persistent, woody and cone-like
1. Winter buds sessile; leaf blade narrowly elliptic, narrowly ovate, lanceolate, to rhombic-ovate; female inflorescence deciduous, not woody nor cone-like
2
2. Bark of trunk becoming platy and cracking, often exfoliating and peeling away from the sides in large plates, becoming adherent and platy on old trunks; winter buds of few scales; petioles tomentose; leaf blades deltoid-ovate to elliptic-ovate
2. Bark not as above; winter buds of several imbricate scales; petioles glabrate; leaf blades elliptic to lanceolate
3
3. Trunk angular or fluted; bark smooth; leaf blade underside with tufts of trichomes in the vein axils; fruit subtended by a 3-lobed foliaceous bract
3. Trunk terete; bark of platy longitudinal strips, sometimes peeling away; leaf blade underside puberulent; fruit enclosed in an inflated papery bract