Birch :: Birke :: Betula Pendula :: *bʰerHǵs :: The Luminant
A species of tree in the family Betulaceae (ord. Fagales, clade Rosids, kingdom Plantae). The silver birch typically reaches 15 to 25 m tall (exceptionally up to 31 m) with a slender trunk usually under 40 cm diameter. The bark on the trunk and branches is golden-brown at first, but later this turns to white as a result of papery tissue developing on the surface and peeling off in flakes, in a similar manner to the closely related paper birch (B. papyrifera). The bark remains smooth until the tree gets quite large, but in older trees, the bark thickens, becoming irregular, dark, and rugged. The leaves have short, slender stalks and are 3 to 7 cm long, triangular with broad, untoothed, wedge-shaped bases, slender pointed tips, and coarsely double-toothed, serrated margins.
in March / April
choose a tree which has cca 20-30 cm diameter at 1m height
at 1m height, drill a cca 2cm-5cm hole with 0.5 cm diameter
insert a drinking straw or a glass tube
collect max 2-3 liters per tree
enclose the drill hole with earth/soil and ash (otherwise the tree could "bleed to death")
for a chosen tree, do not apply more often than once in 2 years
...shoes, containers, boats, mats, roofs, brooms, craddles for newborn, tar, oil, birch flour, torches, paper / postcards, fire in rainy times, chewing gums ...
... information about beginning of the spring, substrate for most robust trees, shamanic drums ...
... information about beginning of the spring, substrate for most robust trees, shamanic drums ...
...Flavonoids, Saponines, Salicylate, Vitamine C, Ascorbic acids, Betulin acid (good against skin cancer), Xylit ...
Birch provides four good things: she illuminates (used for torches); she strangles cries (birch tar used for creeking wheels); she heals the sick and she purifies (birch canes in sauna).
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