At least 120 species of birch grow from the subtropics to the tundra. At least 40 species are known in the territory of the former USSR. The maximum height of trees is 45 meters, the standard is no more than 30. Birch bark is usually smooth and covered with a thin layer of birch bark. Cork peels off as the tree grows. The bark is often white, yellowish, pink, less often brown and gray. Birch has flowers and catkins, and its leaves vary in shape from round to jagged. The tree is mostly frost-resistant. Wood is practically not used for construction, which does not prevent its use in other areas.
Characteristics of birch tree
Birch (Betula) is a deciduous tree; it sheds its leaves in the fall, remaining with bare branches in the winter. Birch leaves are triangular in shape, jagged along the edges. The leaf size generally reaches 4-7 centimeters in length and 3-5 centimeters in width.
The sheet is smooth on both sides. Young birch leaves are distinguished by their stickiness. For each type of birch, the leaf size varies up or down.
A characteristic feature of birch is white bark. Its white color is given by betulin, a resinous substance found in the cellular cavity of the cork tissue of the cortex. In old trees, the bottom of the trunk is dark gray and covered with cracks.
- Young branches are reddish or brown in color and covered with warts. The tree blooms in May.
- Birch flowers have male and female catkins. Men's green earrings appear in the summer, then turn a little brown.
- The tree goes into winter with catkins sealed with a resinous substance.
- In early spring, the catkins lengthen and open their scales, between which yellow stamens with pollen become visible.
- Female flowers grow on the side of the branch. They are smaller in size than male flowers and after pollination the birch sheds female flowers.
The size of the tree depends on the type of birch and can vary from 30 centimeters to 45 meters. The tree trunk reaches a girth of up to one and a half meters. A tree lives from 100 to 400 years.
Reproduction
To plant one of our ordinary birches, it is enough to dig up a small seedling in some abandoned field, but with the propagation of exotic species everything is much more complicated. If varieties of warty birch, especially for super-weeping and dissected-leaved forms, are now supplied by nurseries in quite large quantities, then the propagation of other species will most likely have to be done by gardeners themselves, and a lot of tinkering with this.
The fact is that birch trees are completely unable to reproduce in the simplest and most common way - by cuttings, and the only ways to obtain new plants are growing from seeds and grafting.
Birch trees are propagated by sowing seeds collected during the period of browning of catkins. Germination rate 90%. subsequently falls rapidly. It is better to sow immediately after harvest or in late autumn. Birch trees renew themselves well, producing multi-stemmed forms that are interesting in decorative terms.
Seeds dried to an air-dry state (humidity 7–14%) are stored in hermetically sealed containers, plastic or paper bags in a refrigerator or dry, unheated room. In this case, germination persists for 1 - 2 years. Laboratory germination depends on the species. Sowing in autumn or early spring. Freshly harvested seeds are photosensitive: they germinate in the dark at 15–32 °C. At 15° and below. germinate only after lighting.
After dry storage before sowing. stratification is required at 1 – 10 ° for 2 – 3 months. or treatment with gibberellic acid at a concentration of 100 mg/l for 24 hours. Emerged from dormancy p. germinate at 12 – 25°. Sowing with. superficial in well-prepared grooves or ridges with compaction c. to the seeding substrate. Crops are mulched with fine sawdust, peat, humus, sand or black soil, covered with shady shields or straw 50 - 70% until germination. During this period, the crops are watered daily until the substrate is completely saturated with moisture, weeds are removed in a timely manner, lighting and watering rates are adjusted depending on the temperature and humidity.
Although birches massively populate abandoned lands, fires and clearings, their tiny seedlings are initially very picky about living conditions. First of all, most birch trees need plenty of sunlight even at a very young age. Even slight shading by weeds turns out to be disastrous for them, and they germinate only lying on the surface of the soil - they cannot be buried. Therefore, if you decide to sow some kind of birch, you should do it in a box with soil specially steamed to remove weeds, and then you will have to carefully, but extremely carefully, water the tiny sprouts all spring. But starting from mid-summer, when the plants reach about five centimeters, you can stop worrying about them and transplant them into the “school” with a clear conscience. However, the above procedure applies only to “white” birches.
“Black” ones, as typical forest dwellers, require less light, but their seedlings barely grow in the first year and are completely unstable to the slightest drought. Their rapid growth begins only in the second or third year.
Another method of propagating birch trees is grafting. This is the only way to propagate their varieties, but this requires a fair amount of skill. It is necessary to very accurately determine the time of the operation - the leaves on the rootstock should already begin to unfurl, and the scion must be kept completely at rest. Apparently, the best time for birch tree grafting will be the beginning and middle of May. The grafting itself is carried out using a cutting with one or two buds using the “split”, “butt” and similar methods: in other words, so that the rootstock is thicker than the scion. It is important to slightly shade the grafts and protect them from excessive evaporation. However, even with such tricks, the percentage of successful grafting is insignificant; it is higher only in cool greenhouses with constantly high air humidity. Even worse, it turns out that it is almost impossible to graft a “black” birch onto a “white” one or vice versa - the range of kinship between these groups affects it. Therefore, in our area, the only way to propagate such dark beauties as cherry or Daurian birch is painstaking cultivation from seeds.
Types of birch
There are more than 100 species of birch trees growing in the northern hemisphere. Birch does not grow in the southern hemisphere.
The most common types of birch:
- Birch is warty, or drooping. The young branches of the tree are covered with warts and hang, which gives the name to the tree species. Grows in Northern Europe, Russia. Grows in mixed forests and pure plantings in forest and forest-steppe zones. The height of the tree reaches up to 40 meters, diameter up to 80 centimeters. The tree is frost-resistant and tolerates drought well, therefore it is widespread in the Urals and Siberia, where winters are cold.
- Erman birch or stone. Grows on rocky soils. It was discovered by the German scientist Ehrmann. The height of the tree reaches up to 15 meters, although the trunk can be about 90 centimeters. A strong, stable tree, adapted to difficult weather conditions and undemanding to the soil.
- Karelian birch. It grows in Karelia, with a trunk height of up to 8 meters. It is famous for its wood, from which exclusive furniture is made. The pattern of a tree cut resembles that of marble.
- Dwarf birch. It grows in the tundra in moss swamps. It can be in the form of a bush with a height of 30 centimeters. Grows on acidic soils.
- Birch Schmidt. A rather rare species of birch, growing in Southern Primorye, China and Japan. It is famous for the fact that wood does not burn in fire and does not sink in water. The height of the tree reaches 25 meters. The tree is very light-loving and, when there is a lack of light, bends in search of it.
Planting and care
Birch is not demanding on the substrate; it can grow and develop in any soil. To grow a climbing tree on your site, it is recommended to prepare moist and loamy soil.
Dig a hole and add a mixture of peat, sand, humus and garden soil to it in a ratio of 1:1:1:2. To ensure the plant takes root, place it with an earthen root ball. After planting, provide regular watering and fertilizing with complex fertilizer containing phosphorus and potassium.
Do not forget that in summer the tree absorbs a lot of water, so it needs to be watered regularly at the rate of 1 bucket per square meter.
Fertilize twice a year: in autumn and spring with a nitrogen solution or nitroamphoska.
Prevention of diseases and pests is carried out annually. The plant is treated with a fungicide or insecticide.
Fluffy
Application of birch
Birch has found wide application in all spheres of human life.
- The wood is used to make plywood, which is used to make furniture, crafts, parquet, matches, skis and much more. Barrels made from birch are widely used on the farm. Wood is not used for building houses, as it quickly begins to rot.
- A variety of crafts and toys are made from birch bark, and bast shoes and baskets are woven.
- Birch sap is used to treat kidney disease and urolithiasis.
- Birch tar is used in medicine and cosmetology, veterinary medicine and agriculture.
- Birch brooms are famous for their healing effects. Relieves fatigue and relaxes muscles. Essential oils contained in birch leaves have bactericidal properties, promote wound healing and cleanse the lungs.
- Birch leaves and buds are used to produce yellow dye for wool. Easter eggs are painted with leaves.
- Birch firewood is used to fire stoves in houses, baths and fireplaces.
Useful properties of birch
Birch buds are collected to make tinctures. This is a very good diuretic and choleretic agent.
- Birch leaves have a good choleretic effect.
- Chaga mushroom tincture is used to treat tumors
Birch buds and leaves are widely used in the treatment of many diseases: tinctures and decoctions are made from them for many diseases.
Interesting facts about the birch tree
- Folk signs. Many folk signs are associated with birch. So if the first leaves, the size of a coin, appear on the birch tree, it’s time to plant potatoes. If a lot of sap flows from a birch tree, the summer will be rainy. If by October 14th the leaf from the tree has completely fallen, the year will be easy.
- National holidays. On Trinity Sunday, young girls take birch branches with them to the temple to illuminate them and decorate the house with them. Such branches were believed to protect the house from evil spirits. A birch tree was planted near the house - as a talisman against everything bad. Young girls curled wreaths on a birch tree before Trinity, and on Trinity Sunday they checked whether the wreath was left on the tree or not. If he stayed, then the girl would have a successful marriage.
- Growths on birch - burls - are used for cigarette cases, snuff boxes, and furniture elements. They have a very interesting wood pattern.
- One tree can produce up to 10 liters of birch sap.
Birch grows in almost all regions of Russia. Beautiful birch forests attract vacationers with their beauty and coolness. Mushroom pickers and berry pickers love birch forests for their rich and generous harvest.
Only in a birch forest can you pick a full basket of boletus and porcini mushrooms. And what wonderful strawberry meadows can be found on a birch edge. It is not for nothing that writers, poets, and artists sang the praises of the beautiful birch tree. Birch is a beautiful and useful tree.
Video version
Redwoods, also known as redwoods, are the tallest tree species on Earth. Representatives of the species "pretty fir" (aka Douglas fir) and eucalyptus in Australia could compete with them, but the largest of these trees were mercilessly cut down. By the way, the same fate awaited Hyperion, but fortunately for him, the Redwood Valley became Redwood National Park in the 70s of the last century and cutting down trees there was prohibited. There are currently hundreds of sequoias exceeding 100 m in height and no living trees of other species exceeding this height. Although Hyperion is unsurpassed in trunk length, it is inferior in volume, weight and age to the redwood tree called General Sherman. The height of General Sherman is modest compared to other representatives of the tallest trees rating - 83.8 m, but its weight is a record 1900 tons, its trunk volume is 1487 m³, and its age ranges from 2300 to 2700 years.
