Leaves elliptical, pointed at the tip, fine-toothed, hairless. Side veins of leaves branched. Bark brown or black, does not peel.
Young trunk has thin horizontal stripes.
When broken, twigs give off a wintergreen odor. Black birch is also called Cherry Birch and Mahogany Birch, because of its hard, reddish bark. The wintergreen smell of broken twigs comes from the black birch's sap, which has been used to make a commercial extract called Oil of Wintergreen. A wintergreen tea can be made by covering cut up twigs with boiling sap and allowing the mixture to steep. Fermented sap has been made into birch beer.