What's the difference between white birch and regular birch trees?

Question

Just wondering why some birch trees end up with white skin/bark and some don't? Any botanists out there who can explain this in laymen terms?

Answer 1

There's no such thing as a "regular" birch tree. There are different species of birch, such as white birch, yellow birch, black birch etc. White birch is the one with the white bark, because that's one of the characteristics of that particular species.