Betula utilisD.Don

Himalayan Birch

WFO wfo-0000337574 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 4 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 4 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Betula utilis, photographed by Kristof Zyskowski
fig. a Kristof Zyskowski, CC BY 4.0 / 2016-10-23 / obs. 6570788
Betula utilis, photographed by Dinesh Valke
fig. b Dinesh Valke, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 172658925
Betula utilis, photographed by Dinesh Valke
fig. c Dinesh Valke, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 172658119
Betula utilis, photographed by John Kenrick Gibson
fig. d John Kenrick Gibson, CC0 1.0 / obs. 197728102
Betula utilis, photographed by John Kenrick Gibson
fig. e John Kenrick Gibson, CC0 1.0 / obs. 197728095
Betula utilis, photographed by Kristof Zyskowski
fig. f Kristof Zyskowski, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 6570548
Betula utilis, photographed by Stephen James McWilliam
fig. g Stephen James McWilliam, CC0 1.0 / obs. 161681933
Betula utilis, photographed by Stephen James McWilliam
fig. h Stephen James McWilliam, CC0 1.0 / obs. 161681895

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 15 botanical countries

Regions where Betula utilis is native: Afghanistan, China North-Central, China South-Central, China Southeast, Inner Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Tadzhikistan, Tibet, Uzbekistan, East Himalaya, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, West Himalaya AfghanistanChina North-CentralChina South-CentralChina SoutheastInner MongoliaKazakhstanKirgizstanTadzhikistanTibetUzbekistanEast HimalayaMyanmarNepalPakistanWest Himalaya
Native distribution of Betula utilis, 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
Afghanistan AFG ASIA-TEMPERATE
China North-Central CHN
China South-Central CHC
China Southeast CHS
Inner Mongolia CHI
Kazakhstan KAZ
Kirgizstan KGZ
Tadzhikistan TZK
Tibet CHT
Uzbekistan UZB
East Himalaya EHM ASIA-TROPICAL
Myanmar MYA
Nepal NEP
Pakistan PAK
West Himalaya WHM

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 118 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -18.9 °C -10.0 °C 3.1 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 11.3 °C 16.2 °C 21.5 °C
Annual rainfall 686 mm 1,265 mm 4,450 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 27 mm 135 mm 254 mm

It is found where winters are severely cold. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 118 research-grade observations of Betula utilis 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 27 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.

  • Betula albosinensis Burkill
  • Betula albosinensis var. septentrionalis C.K.Schneid.
  • Betula bhojpattra Wall.
  • Betula bhojpattra var. genuina Regel
  • Betula bhojpattra var. glandulifera Regel
  • Betula bhojpattra var. jacquemontii (Spach) Regel
  • Betula bhojpattra var. latifolia Regel
  • Betula bhojpattra var. sinensis Franch.
  • Betula castanae Buch.-Ham. ex Hook.f.
  • Betula chitralica Browicz
  • Betula jacquemontii Spach
  • Betula jacquemontii subsp. occidentalis (Kitam.) Browicz
  • Betula jinpingensis P.C.Li
  • Betula kunarensis Browicz
  • Betula pyrolifolia V.N.Vassil.
  • Betula utilis subsp. intermedia Kitam.
  • Betula utilis subsp. jacquemontii (Spach) Ashburner & McAll.
  • Betula utilis var. glandulifera Regel
  • Betula utilis var. jacquemontii (Spach) H.J.P.Winkl.
  • Betula utilis var. latifolia Regel
  • Betula utilis var. occidentalis (Kitam.) Ashburner & A.D.Schill.
  • Betula utilis var. parva Kitam.
  • Betula utilis var. prattii Burkill
  • Betula utilis var. sinensis (Franch.) H.J.P.Winkl.

and 3 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.