Birch
Birch is a cool-temperate tree that grows best in the 10–18°C range with 400–900 mm of rain, cropping year after year as a perennial.
How it grows
Birch grows on a tree — the fruit ripens above the ground, up in the canopy.
Where Earth's climate suits birch
Climatic suitability only — scored for every 0.5° of the planet from this crop's temperature and rainfall tolerances (FAO EcoCrop) on AgroClim 1991–2025 normals (AgERA5 temperature, CHIRPS/ERA5 rainfall). It shows where the rain-fed climate permits the crop, not where it is grown today; irrigation lets many crops thrive in drier country than the map suggests (California, Egypt, the Indus and Nile).
Proxy envelope: EcoCrop lists Betula pendula but provides no usable climate thresholds for it, so this page models the same-genus Betula pubescens envelope. Treat the map as a screening estimate, not species-level validation.
Who grows it — and where the climate merely allows it
Climate envelope · FAO EcoCrop proxy
Deep bar = optimal range; pale bar = absolute tolerance. Beyond the pale bar the crop fails. Latitude tolerance ±70° · soil pH 4–8.
Growing calendar & hazards
A perennial: once established it crops year after year, flushing and fruiting with the local wet and warm seasons rather than on a single annual calendar.
- Hard freeze. Tolerant of chill but killed once temperatures fall below about 0°C.
- Drought. Relatively drought-hardy, but a failed rainy season still cuts yield sharply where irrigation is absent.
- Heat. A cool-season crop that bolts or fails in summer heat; best grown in the shoulder seasons or at altitude.