''Betula megrelica'', the Megrelian birch, is a very rare species of flowering plant in the family
Betulaceae
Betulaceae, the birch family, includes six genera of deciduous nut-bearing trees and shrubs, including the birches, alders, hazels, hornbeams, hazel-hornbeam, and hop-hornbeams, numbering a total of 167 species. They are mostly natives of ...
.
It is native to western Georgia, and has only been found in two locations,
Mt. Migaria and
Mt. Jvari, in the
Egrisi Range
Egrisi Range ( ka, ეგრისის ქედი), also known as the Samegrelo Range (სამეგრელოს ქედი) or the Odishi Range (ოდიშის ქედი), is an east–west mountain range that runs parallel to t ...
of the
Caucasus Mountains
The Caucasus Mountains
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* Azerbaijani: ,
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* is a mountain range at the intersection of Asia and Europe. Stretching between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, they are surrounded by the Caucasus region ...
.
A shrub or small tree reaching , it is typically found in thickets at elevations from .
A
dodecaploid, it is in a
clade
In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach t ...
with the decaploid ''
B.medwediewii'' (Caucasian birch) and the diploid ''
B.lenta'' (cherry birch, native to eastern North America).
In spite of its rarity and endangered status, it is available from specialty nurseries.
References
megrelica
Endemic flora of Georgia (country)
Plants described in 1934
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