Its colors
yellow
When it turns here
first color about Sep 23, 2026, at its best Sep 28, 2026, fading by Oct 1, 2026, bare by Oct 6, 2026 (estimate).
this year, by the model, the forest here peaks about Oct 7, 2026.
Model of Oct 27, 2026.
How long it holds
the sources give no figure for how long it holds its color.
Where it grows thickest
Cool, moist upland hardwood forest across northern New England, New York and Ontario's Great Lakes and St. Lawrence forest, usually mixed with sugar maple, beech, hemlock and red spruce.
cool, moist uplands
its range outline comes to this page
By height
Up to about 790 m (2,600 ft) on glacial till in the Green Mountains; it grows better low than high and on northeast-facing slopes than southwest.
From the road
Bronze to silvery-gray bark peeling in thin curls, yellow crowns mixed among the maples and hemlocks on cool moist slopes.
Its pictures this autumn
Where to see it
pictures of it this autumn from …
- Burlington, the Islands & Lake Champlain, VT · 1 picture, newest Oct 4, 2026
- Moncton, Shediac & the Fundy hills, NB · 1 picture, newest Oct 4, 2026
The sources’ own words
A fairly common medium-sized tree often associated with hemlock in moist sites and swamp edges, with silver gray to yellow curly bark. Its alternate finely toothed leaves turn yellow in mid-October.
In the Green Mountains of Vermont birch grows on unstratified glacial till up to 792 m (2,600 ft) (109).
Here, thickness of the upper soil horizon as influenced by elevation and aspect have been used to estimate site index-birch grows better at lower elevations than higher elevations and on northeast aspects than southwest aspects.
Yellow birch is a common hardwood across the Great Lakes - St. Lawrence forest, preferring cool moist upland sites.
This mixed forest type is characterized by red spruce and yellow birch, or less often another hardwood (sugar maple, red maple, or beech).
Yellow birch is usually found singly or in small pure groups in mixtures with other species.
On younger stems shiny bronze (sometimes gray), peeling horizontally in thin, curly, papery strips; older trees develop red-brown scaly plates.