[8] Betula leopoldae was described from a series of type specimens collected in the Republic, Washington area during the early 1980s.

Working from these two specimens, the species was studied by Jack A. Wolfe of the University of California and Wesley C. Wehr of the Burke Museum.

[1] They published their 1987 type description in a United States Geological Survey monograph on the North Eastern Washington dicot fossils.

The specific epithet leopoldae is a matronym recognizing paleobotanist and conservationist Estella Leopold, though this was not noted in the type description.

[9] In a paper which appeared that same year, Peter Crane and Ruth Stockey described a series of B. leopoldae leaves along with catkins, flowering bodies, and pollen from the Allenby Formation.

Crane and Stockey noted B. leopoldae to be the oldest reproductive plus vegetative record for a Betula species at that time.

B. leopoldae was interpreted as positioned either in the stem lineage of the genus, or as one of the grade of species which diverged early in Betula diversification.

The undersides of the leaves, the leaf margins, and the petioles sport numerous 0.1–0.35 mm (0.0039–0.0138 in) long simple hairs.

The bases of the slightly woody bracts are cupped where they attach to the peduncle, and the lobe tips are obtuse or rounded.