A medium size deciduous tree, typically reaching 15-25 m tall, exceptionally up to 30 m, with a slender crown of arched branches with drooping branchlets. The bark is white, often with black diamond-shaped marks or larger patches at the base. The shoots are rough with small warts, and hairless, and the leaves 3-6 cm long, triangular with a broad base and pointed tip, and coarsely serrated margins. The flowers are wind-pollinated catkins, produced before the leaves in early spring, the small (1-2 mm) winged seeds ripening in late summer on 3-5 cm long catkins.

Kills bacteria (essential oil); anti-inflammatory, cholagogue, diaphoretic (plant); diuretic and laxative (bark); anticholesterolemic and diuretic (leaves);

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Betulinic acid (bark)

Rheumatism, sciatica and long-term inflammations of the urinary tract. Used in treating intermittent fevers (inner bark); in the treatment of gout, dropsy and rheumatism, and is recommended as a reliable solvent of kidney stones (leaf infusion); for bathing skin eruptions (leaves and bark decoction)

Stary, Medicinal Herbs and Plants.