Betula nanaL.

Arctic dwarf birchBog birchDwarf BirchScrub birchSwamp birchdwarf birch

WFO wfo-0000334679 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Betula nana, photographed by Tatiana Strus
fig. a Tatiana Strus, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-28 / obs. 201187399
Betula nana, photographed by Станислав Чуванов
fig. b Станислав Чуванов, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 162846981
Betula nana, photographed by Ida B D Jacobsen
fig. c Ida B D Jacobsen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 153479590
Betula nana, photographed by Nina Filippova
fig. d Nina Filippova, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 150735911
Betula nana, photographed by Алексей Ябс
fig. e Алексей Ябс, CC0 1.0 / obs. 149861726
Betula nana, photographed by Нурхайдарова Татьяна
fig. f Нурхайдарова Татьяна, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 148504889
Betula nana, photographed by Donald Davesne
fig. g Donald Davesne, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 152892656
Betula nana, photographed by Jens-Christian Svenning
fig. h Jens-Christian Svenning, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 146392235

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 25 botanical countries

Regions where Betula nana is native: Altay, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, West Siberia, Austria, Baltic States, Belarus, Central European Russia, Czechia-Slovakia, East European Russia, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Iceland, North European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Norway, Poland, Romania, Svalbard, Sweden, Switzerland, Greenland, Northwest Territories AltayIrkutskKrasnoyarskWest SiberiaAustriaBaltic StatesBelarusCentral European RussiaCzechia-SlovakiaEast European RussiaFinlandFranceGermanyIcelandNorth European RussiaNorthwest European RussiaNorwayPolandRomaniaSvalbardSwedenSwitzerlandGreenlandNorthwest Territories
Native distribution of Betula nana, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Austria AUT EUROPE
Baltic States BLT
Belarus BLR
Central European Russia RUC
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
East European Russia RUE
Finland FIN
France FRA
Germany GER
Great Britain GRB
Iceland ICE
North European Russia RUN
Northwest European Russia RUW
Norway NOR
Poland POL
Romania ROM
Svalbard SVA
Sweden SWE
Switzerland SWI
Altay ALT ASIA-TEMPERATE
Irkutsk IRK
Krasnoyarsk KRA
West Siberia WSB
Greenland GNL NORTHERN AMERICA
Northwest Territories NWT

Not drawn on the map: Great Britain. We hold no public-domain boundary for this region, so it is listed rather than guessed at.

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 1,961 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -28.8 °C -14.5 °C -6.4 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 11.0 °C 15.9 °C 21.4 °C
Annual rainfall 429 mm 776 mm 1,667 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 52 mm 121 mm 291 mm

It is found where winters are arctic. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 1,961 research-grade observations of Betula nana that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 25 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Alnus nana (L.) Clairv.
  • Betula alba subsp. nana (L.) Bonnier & Layens
  • Betula crenata Rydb. ex E.J.Butler
  • Betula glandulosa f. intermedia Kurtz
  • Betula littelliana Tucker
  • Betula nana f. magnifolia Hartz
  • Betula nana f. reducta (Hultén) B.Boivin
  • Betula nana subsp. nana
  • Betula nana subsp. relicta (Th.Fr. ex Gürke) Nyman
  • Betula nana subsp. tundrarum (Perfil.) Á.Löve & D.Löve
  • Betula nana var. borealis Regel
  • Betula nana var. europaea Ledeb.
  • Betula nana var. flabellifolia Hook.
  • Betula nana var. genuina Regel
  • Betula nana var. intermedia Regel
  • Betula nana var. macrophylla Gaudin
  • Betula nana var. macrophylla Kindb.
  • Betula nana var. reducta Hultén
  • Betula nana var. relicta Th.Fr. ex Gürke
  • Betula nanaeformis Lindb. ex Kindb.
  • Betula tundrarum Perfil.
  • Betula viminea Kindb.
  • Betula viminea var. serrulata Kindb.
  • Chamaebetula acutifolia Opiz

and 1 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.