Betula aff. pubescens (Mt Macedon)
Tree or shrub to 20 m high; bark reddish brown to white, shedding readily, in sheets. Branchlets slender to stout, erect, usually velvety pubescent, sometimes glandular. Leaves broadly ovate, 3–7 cm long, 2–5 cm wide, upper surface glabrous or pubescent, blue-green, shiny or dull, lower surface pubescent, sometimes restricted to veins, without prominent glands; margins serrate; apex acute; base cuneate to truncate or cordate; lateral veins mostly 5–8. Female catkin cylindric, c. 2 cm long, c. 5 mm wide, sometimes pendulous; bracts c. 5 mm long, glabrous to puberulent, 3-lobed, lateral lobes rounded, equal to central lobe. Fruit elliptic, c. 2 mm long, wings equal to or slightly wider than nutlet.
GipP, CVU. Escaping cultivation in the Macedon region.
This taxon is likely to be of hybrid origin, it most closely resembles Betula pubescens Ehrh., native to Europe and western Asia, but has some characteristics of B. pendula. Both species are commonly cultivated and appear to intergrade.
