I've heard of this tree, but never have seen one. My old woody plant teacher, Dr. Michael Dirr, saw some at the Arnold Arboretum in Boston and some in England and wrote about it in his woody landscape plant textbook. It is native to northern Japan and is rare. It is noted as having the largest leaves among birch trees of being about 6 inches long by 4 inches wide and sort of heart-shaped. The foliage turns a butter yellow in fall. It has large catkins about 5 to 6 inches long. Its bark begins as dark brown, but then turns yellow-white (creamy) then to grey-white with a slight flaking and often with horizontal stripes; when old the bark can be just grey. There are a few mail order nurseries in the US that sell some, and more in the UK, where there are more of this species planted.

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