Size: tree, 50-70' average height at maturity, 30-60' spread
Buds: imbricate, .25-.5" long, ovate, pointed, brownish black, glabrous or nearly so, scales may be downy on margins
Leaves: deciduous, alternate, 2-5.5" long, .67" wide, simple, ovate to narrow ovate, acuminate, coarsely doubly serrate, pubescent petiole, dark green, yellow in fall
Twigs: short "spur" branches on older wood, each terminated by a bud, no wintergreen fragrance or taste, relatively stout, glabrous, shiny, smooth
Flowers: monoecious, unlike alders, winter catkins of one type only (male; females in erect 1-1.25" greenish catkins), catkins stout, often in twos or threes, about 1" long and .25" wide
Fruit: nutlets born on catkins up to 1.5"
Bark: white, chalky, white rubs off, easily peeled off in thin paper-like layers (unlike B. populifolia), inner bark orangish
