DISTRIBUTION AND OCCURRENCE
SPECIES: Betula nigra | River Birch 



GENERAL DISTRIBUTION : 
River birch is found throughout the southeastern United States; local
distributions are closely associated with alluvial soils.  It is found
from southern New York, eastern Pennsylvania, and Maryland west to
eastern Indiana; north in the Mississippi Valley to Wisconsin and
southeastern Minnesota; south to Missouri, Arkansas, eastern Oklahoma,
and eastern Texas; and east to northern Florida [21,22].

The distribution of river birch within this range excludes the
Appalachian mountains, upland areas in central Tennessee and Kentucky,
south-central Missouri, and the lower Mississippi Valley from
southeastern Missouri to the Gulf of Mexico [21,22].

Locations of disjunct populations as reported by Little [22] include
northeastern Massachussetts/southeastern New Hampshire, western New
York, northern Ohio, northern Illinois, northern Indiana, and
south-central Minnesota.  In a study to determine the status of these
disjunct populations, Coyle and others [5] confirmed the northeastern
Massachussetts/southeastern New Hampshire population and three other
naturally reproducing river birch populations outside of the main
distribution:  extreme western North Carolina, eastern Kansas, and
northwestern Indiana.


ECOSYSTEMS : 
   FRES15  Oak - hickory
   FRES16  Oak - gum - cypress
   FRES17  Elm - ash - cottonwood


STATES : 
     AL  AR  CT  DE  FL  GA  IL  IN  IA  KS
     KY  LA  MD  MA  MN  MS  MO  NH  NJ  NY
     NC  OH  OK  PA  SC  TN  TX  VA  WV  WI


ADMINISTRATIVE UNITS : 
     BISO  BITH  BLRI  BUFF  CAMO  COSW
     CUGA  CUVA  DEWA  EFMO  GWMP  GRSM
     HOBE  MACA  MANA  NATR  NERI  OBRI
     OZAR  PRWI  RICH  ROCR  SHIL  VAFO


BLM PHYSIOGRAPHIC REGIONS : 
NO-ENTRY


KUCHLER PLANT ASSOCIATIONS : 
   K098  Northern floodplain forest
   K101  Elm - ash forest
   K112  Southern mixed forest
   K113  Southern floodplain forest


SAF COVER TYPES : 
    39  Black ash - American elm - red maple
    61  River birch - sycamore
    62  Silver maple - American elm
    63  Cottonwood
    65  Pin oak - sweetgum
    87  Sweet gum - yellow-poplar
    88  Willow oak - water oak - diamondleaf oak
    91  Swamp chestnut oak - cherrybark oak
    92  Sweetgum - willow oak
    93  Sugarberry - American elm - green ash
    94  Sycamore - sweetgum - American elm
    95  Black willow
    96  Overcup oak - water hickory


SRM (RANGELAND) COVER TYPES : 
NO-ENTRY


HABITAT TYPES AND PLANT COMMUNITIES : 
River birch is found in virtually every bottomland cover type, and its
associates can be considered almost all bottomland plants in the
eastern United States [13].

River birch is named as an overstory dominant, codominant, or
indicator species in the following publications:

 1. The natural forests of Maryland: an explanation of the vegetation map of
      Maryland [3]
 2. Forest vegetation of the lower Alabama Piedmont [11]
 3. Land classification in the Blue Ridge province: state-of-the-      
      science report [23]
 4. Southern swamps and marshes [25]
 5. Classification and evaluation of forest sites in the Cumberland
      Mountains [29]
 6. Classification and evaluation of forest sites on the Natchez Trace
      State Forest, State Resort Park, and Wildlife Managemant Area in west
      Tennessee [30]
 7. Plant communities of the Coastal Plain of North Carolina and their
      successional relations [38]

Related categories for Species: Betula nigra | River Birch