The best river birch cultivars are the Heritage and Dura-Heat varieties. The Heritage or "Cully" cultivar was selected in 2002 as the tree of the year by the Society of Municipal Arborists.

Seedling river birch is common in the marketplace, and there are at least two superb cultivars available, Heritage and Dura Heat. The Society of Municipal Arborists selected Heritage as the 2002 ...

Many ornamental trees are valued for their spring flowers or fall foliage, but they offer little aesthetic value during the winter. Not the river birch tree. The river birch’s beautiful bark ...

A fairly fast-growing tree, river birch can reach a height of 70 feet or more. Native throughout the eastern U.S., it is typically found on the banks of rivers and streams as well as in floodplains.

At the top of my list is ‘Dura-Heat’ river birch, Betula nigra. It is heat and drought tolerant and resists bronze birch borer, a troublesome boring insect that attacks birches.

Dura Heat river birch is a selection made because it theoretically holds up to summer weather better than the species. However, all birch trees struggle with hot weather in Texas.