Dwarf birch

Betula nana

The dwarf birch makes often real thickets, which one needs to avoid in order not to tumble. However, mostly it grows as a low bush that is easy to step over. The dwarf birch is a very important plant, as it grows high up on the fells where reindeer browse, as well as on marshes and in thin woods. It provides protection, food and nesting sites for small and bigger birds and other animals, too. Even when the summer is not a good one for cloudberries, some berries will be found in the dwarf birch thickets.

The dwarf birch is a species of the north temperate and the arctic zones and, thus, the northernmost birch species in the world. It is also the smallest birch. It grows in the form of a dense shrub along the ground or a bush that reaches, at the most, the height of one metre. The leaves are small, round and big-toothed; in the autumn, they turn red or orange. In Lapland, the dwarf birch grows in highland heaths, marshes or forests, whereas, in the south, it mainly grows in spruce mires.