white birch

1 4.9

A tree with pale bark and thin hanging branches often found in Europe

noun

: abeto blanco

Well, I know there's some white birch here.
white birch tree
stand of white birch

Examples

Where we, in our rented yard, have scrub pine and a slippery floor of needles, the Morris' trees are white birch and the grass is like a putting green.

Fiction book (1990)
The world has been turned upside down, she tells him as she points out a stand of white birch whose leafless trunks and branches stretch up out of the snow like frosty roots into the blue sky.

Fiction book (1996)
If there were a moon, it would be shining on the white birch.

Fiction book (1996)
approaching the line of white birches,

Fiction book (1996)
The curling bark of the white birch.

Fiction book (1996)
Imperceptibly, we move closer and start to see shapes blocking out part of the white birch.

Fiction book (1992)
The paper-white birch trunks add texture to images.

Academic text (2007)
Stopping in the shadow of a white birch, he pulled his shirt over his head and wiped the sweat from his face and chest.

Fiction book (1996)
There were lures everywhere, gaudy and sharp, some in the ferns, some up in the white birches, others hanging festively off the pines.

Fiction book (1996)
As we hiked through the forest, we admired the tall white birch trees with their striking white bark.

Synonyms

birch

vswhite birch

20 1.7

A tree with thin, peeling bark and light wood

is a particular species with dull pale bark and slightly drooping branches

birch tree

vswhite birch

4 2.1

A tree with thin white bark that peels and slender branches

is a specific European species with dull pale bark and hairy branches

silver birch

vswhite birch

1 4.5

A tree with silvery white peeling bark and drooping branches

has dull pale bark rather than bright silvery peeling bark

European white birch

vswhite birch

1 6.3

A tree with silvery white peeling bark and drooping branches

has dull pale bark rather than bright silvery peeling bark

Betula pendula

vswhite birch

Specialized

1 9.2

A birch tree with white peeling bark and drooping branches

has dull pale bark rather than bright silvery peeling bark

common birch

vswhite birch

1 3.8

A tree with silvery white bark that peels in thin papery layers and drooping branches

has dull pale bark rather than bright silvery peeling bark

Surface Forms

white birch singular

white birches plural

Morphology

white + birch

The noun phrase simply combines the adjective 'white' with the noun 'birch' to denote a birch tree that is white, so the meaning is directly derivable from the constituents. This is a literal adjective + noun subtype naming pattern (no idiomatic or metaphorical shift) and is cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both words will understand it.

Etymology

White birch comes from a simple picture: a birch tree with very pale, almost white bark that often peels in thin layers. So the name just describes this tree's light bark and graceful branches.