There is debate as to whether this is its own species or a variety of Paper Birch. I am a "lumper" so I favour variety status as it is little different. Where it is different is that this B. cordifolia has more heart-shaped leaves, (cordifolia in Latin means heart-shaped). The leaves have 9 to 12 vein pairs rather than less than 9 for Paper Birch, and the leaves have dotted resin glands. The bark is thinner, less chaulky, almost shiny, with shades of gray and pink with the white. The inner bark is often dark cherry pink instead of light reddish-tan. The young shoots are not hairy. It usually has a diploid condition of 28 chromosomes; sometimes tetraploid. The Paper Birch is tetraploid to pentaploid, to hexaploid. The native range of this Mountain Paper birch is in southeast Canada to Labrador, New England, eastern New York, central Pennsylvania, western Maryland, with some spots in the Appalachians of North Carolina & Tennessee, then northeast Minnesota, Upper Michigan, various spots in Wisconsin, usually found in alpine to subalpine habitats, mountain summits, and rocky slopes.

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