Betula costata

Elm-leaved birch or costata birch is in the birch or Betulaceae family and is native to higher elevations in Korea, China and Manchuria. It can reach a height of 30 m tall.

• Bark varies from white to cream, silvery or even pale red, peeling showily from the trunk and large branches in broad strips; in old age the bark can become impressively thick; branchlets are brown, sparsely pubescent.
• Leaves are alternate, simple, slender, long and ovate or ovate-elliptic, 3.5–7 cm long and 1.5–4.5 cm broad, base rounded or semi-square, margin irregularly and doubly minutely serrate, apex taper-pointed, 9–16 lateral veins on each side of the midvein, bearded in axils of lateral veins, glabrous on underside; petiole is 0.8-2 cm long.
• The species is monoecious; flowers are drooping male pollen catkins 2–4 cm long and seed catkins 1.5–2.5 cm long, on a peduncle 2-5 mm long; cones are distinctly upright, turning dark brown in winter, releasing seed and fragmenting; seeds are winged samaras.