Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun A taxonomic genus within the family Betulaceae — the birch trees.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin betula ("birch tree")

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word Betula.

Examples

  • The schoolmaster at Lesopolye was Matvey Nikolaitch, who had been a divinity student, a kind and intelligent man, but he, too, was a drunkard; he never beat the schoolchildren, but for some reason he always had hanging on his wall a bunch of birch-twigs, and below it an utterly meaningless inscription in Latin: "Betula kinderbalsamica secuta."

    The Bishop and Other Stories Anton Pavlovich Chekhov 1882

  • It led us by a short portage into a small lake called Betula, or Birch Lake, a sylvan little body of water having three islands, which we were just twenty-five minutes in crossing by free strokes of the paddles.

    Memoirs of 30 Years with the Indian Tribes on the American Frontiers Schoolcraft, H R 1851

  • 'Betula' flourished and spread unencumbered, transforming large regions of grassland into forests.

    TreeHugger 2010

  • "Betula," says the first voice sharply, "just because you happen to have a silver complexion there is no need to be a minx.

    Try Anything Twice 1938

  • Swiss chard (Betula vulgaris) is a leafy form of the regular garden beet.

    Groundwork: Chard's double punch Cynthia A. Brown 2010

  • Beinn Eighe National Nature Reserve on the west coast of Scotland includes outstanding examples of old Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) - downy birch (Betula pubescens) rainforests.

    Cool rainforests store more carbon, book finds Juliet Eilperin 2010

  • Beinn Eighe National Nature Reserve on the west coast of Scotland includes outstanding examples of old Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) - downy birch (Betula pubescens) rainforests.

    Cool rainforests store more carbon, book finds Juliet Eilperin 2010

  • Reindeer herders report that the abundance and distribution of mountain birch (Betula pubescens) have increased and the abundance and distribution of mat-forming lichens have decreased in Finnmark over the last three to four decades.

    Climate change and reindeer nomadism in Finnmark, Norway 2010

  • Other trees/shrubs living in the home of dark/black already include two seedling butterfly bushes with purple/blue flowers trained as standards, and a red leaf birch tree, Betula ‘Crimson Frost’ that has not grown very rapidly but does show improvement with each passing year.

    Denizens Of The Dark « Fairegarden 2010

  • After 9 and 15 years, competitive interactions altered the relative abundance of plant functional types, with the tallest species (the deciduous shrub Betula nana; Fig. 7.3) responding most strongly [26].

    Effects of changes in climate and UV radiation levels on structure of arctic ecosystems in the short and long term 2009

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.