The River Birch Tree, also known as Water Birch, is native to the floodplains, swamps and riverbanks of the eastern United States. While it thrives in waterlogged soil and is an excellent choice for erosion control, the River Birch is also quite commonly used as an ornamental specimen tree in landscape. This is due to its colorful exfoliating/peeling bark which is particularly noticeable in the winter and attractive weeping serrated light-green leaves. River Birch is also known for being one of the fastest-growing ornamental shade trees which is great for new construction and refreshing more mature landscapes. Known for being very heat-tolerant. In early spring the tree produces copious amounts of sap, which Native Americans collected and boiled to make a sweetener similar to maple syrup.