Side veins of leaves unbranched. Bark shiny yellow or silver-gray, and unlike black birch bark, it does not peel. Broken twigs emit a wintergreen odor.
Oil of wintergreen is made of the sap and leaves of yellow birch.
The wood is often stained and given cherry and mahogany-like finishes. Animals that enjoy parts of the tree include ruffed and sharptail grouse, prairie chicken, white-tailed deer, moose, and red squirrel. There are no yellow birches on the Wellesley campus, but they are found further north in the White Mountains.