HEARNE ARBORICULTURE
  • Home
  • Development and Planning
  • Safety and Risk Management
  • Protected Trees
  • Mortgage and Insurance Reports
  • About
  • Contact
  • Testimonials
  • Blog

HEARNE BLOGS

A miscellany of tree related posts - from important current issues to anything that's even tenuously connected to trees

TREE OF THE MONTH - FEBRUARY 2017  BIRCH

10/2/2017

2 Comments

 
Picture

'...most beautiful
Of forest trees, the Lady of the Woods'

Samuel Coleridge
The Birches have a beauty, elegance and almost feminine delicacy about them. As Fiona Stafford rather wonderfully puts it, they 'are the ugly ducklings of the tree word; their brown unassuming saplings developing a swan-like beauty as they grow'. But they are also tough customers that can pioneer the way into the most hostile of environments. This 'Lady of the Woods' provides an attractive pale timber, medicines and even a decent wine; but it also has an historical association with punishment, pain, gunpowder and fascism. In short, the Birches can be a bit of a paradox.
The Birches (Betula sp) are in the Betulaceae family; a family that also includes Hazels, Alders and Hornbeam. They have a long ancestry with a fossil record dating back more than 65 million years and have been around long enough to have survived dinosaur browsing. There are now around 60 species in northern Europe, North America and Asia.

There are three Birches native to Britain, but one is the Dwarf Birch (Betula nana) which grows at high altitudes in Scotland and gets to about 4ft at most - so it's a bit of a stretch to call it a tree. The remaining two are the Silver Birch (Betula pendula) and the Downy Birch (Betula pubescens) which will have been among the first vegetation to colonise our shores after the retreat of the last ice age in the Mesolithic period (c. 10000-6000 BC). At Star Carr in Yorkshire, which was occupied from about 8700 BC, an important archaeological site has found evidence of our oldest known dwelling, along with an 11000 year old birch tree trunk with its bark intact. It is an intrepid pioneering tree able to tolerate extreme cold and altitude. There are endless Birch forests in Canada and Siberia; the Himalayan  Birch will grow at greater altitudes than even Spruce or Pine; it was a major component of the Caledonian forest and remains a dominant species of Scandinavian forests - as evidenced by a flick through any Ikea catalogue - a truly hardy tree. Birches have a live-fast-die-young strategy and can live for 80-200 years - though 200 is the exception with the average being nearer the 80.

I find it very difficult to tell the Silver Birch from the Downy Birch and some have argued that they are varieties of the same species. But we now know that Silver Birch is a diploid with 28 chromosomes, and Downy Birch a tetraploid with 56; so Downy Birch presumably arose from Silver Birch but is a separate species. Silver Birch tends to have the more graceful drooping branch ends which are particularly accentuated under the weight of catkins in the spring.
The pioneering spirit of the light demanding Birch, with its tiny wind blown winged seeds (almost 6 million to the kg!!) and ability to survive nutrient poor soils, sands and peats, is the key to its success. It is likely to appear anywhere on open ground, roads, railways, river banks, gaps in woodland, alpine settings or tundra. Along with wind dispersed Scots Pine, it is a major headache for those trying to conserve our heathlands and is often treated as a weed by foresters wanting a more valuable crop. But it is also a favourite with poets and artists and, with an increasingly diverse choice of available species, it is a frequent choice of gardeners and landscape designers. The only downside is that, being wind pollinated, they produce pollen in large quantities which troubles some hay fever sufferers.
Picture
Birches colonising a disused railway line - Ashington Dorset
There is some diversity in leaf size and shape between the species, from the 6-12mm leafed Dwarf Birch to the 150mm leaf of the Monarch Birch of Japan (B. maximowicziana) - but the greatest variety is in the bark colour and texture  - the feature for which they are most frequently used in amenity plantings. I've lost count of the landscaping schemes I've seen that include groups of Himalayan Birch for their wonderful snowy white bark; but Birch are also a good choice where space is limited or heavy shade is undesirable. And their glorious yellow autumn colour should not be underestimated. Here's a selection of barks:
Picture
Silver Birch bark (B. pendula) - image by © Sue Sweeney (http://www.inmygarden.org/) via Wikimedia Commons
Picture
Peeling bark of Canoe or Paper Birch (B. papyrifera) Image By By © Sue Sweeney (http://www.inmygarden.org/) via Wikimedia Commons
Picture
Yellow Birch (B. alleghaniensis) By © Sue Sweeney (http://www.inmygarden.org/) , via Wikimedia Commons
Picture
Chinese Red Birch (B. albosinensis) CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=206083
Picture
Crackly bark of River Birch (B. nigra) By © Sue Sweeney (http://www.inmygarden.org/) , via Wikimedia Commons
Picture
Russian Rock birch (B. ermanii) image by Kurt Stüber CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons
Picture
Forrest's Birch (B. forrestii) - image Lokal_Profil [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Picture
Himalayan Birch variety (B. utilis var Jaquemontii) Image By The Planted Garden nursery - link at sources below
Birch bark not only provides an attractive feature (I recall one author being in raptures about its effect in moonlight), but it has also proved to be an extremely useful material. The whiter barks in particular are rich in phenolics and some produce betulin making it waterproof. This biochemical barrier is almost imperishable - at the 11000 year old archeological dig at Star Carr mentioned above, some sheets of bark were found that had been rolled and tied into scrolls that are thought to have been used as fishing floats. The waterproofing and durability have also led to its use in roofing and boat building - native American Indians built canoes of wood clothed in Birch bark skin that was sewed with spruce roots and porcupine quills. In his 1855 poem The Song of Hiawatha, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's hero calls upon the Yellow Birch, Betula alleghaniensis, to surrender its bark for his canoe.
PictureWabanaki Birch bark canoe, Abbe Museum, Maine, USA - image By Billy Hathorn (Own work) [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Birches, like Cherries, have alternating layers of thin- and thick-walled cork cells resulting in the shedding of papery sheets, most commonly at the end of the growing season and especially after hot weather when shrinkage helps to loosen the bark. The description 'papery' is entirely appropriate since it has long been widely used for writing - the oldest known Hindu manuscripts are Birch bark. The bark also yields Birch Tar oil, once of considerable commercial importance in Russia, where it was used to dress and waterproof leather, giving it a distinctive smell that was considered a mark of quality. Books bound in Russia leather were resistant to mould.

The timber itself is not particularly durable but is attractive, cheap and easily worked. It is widely used for furniture and tool handles for indoor use and, thanks to its bountiful distribution in colder climes, it has been a vital source of firewood. Writing of the great Scottish Birchwoods, J. C. Loudoun describes how 'The Highlanders...make everything of it; they build their houses, make beds and chairs, tables, dishes and spoons; construct their mills; make their carts, ploughs, harrows, gates and fences, and even make rope from it. [It is a] fuel for distilling whiskey, the spray is used for smoking hams and herrings...bark is used for tanning leather and, sometimes, dried and twisted into a rope instead of candles. The spray is used for thatching houses; and, in summer, with the leaves on, makes a good bed'. Birch charcoal has also been much used for gunpowder.
And it's not just the bark and timber that we use - as the tree mobilises its sugar reserves to fuel spring growth, the rising sap can be 'tapped', just as maple syrup is. An incision is made in the stem and a tube or stick inserted, along or through which the sap will flow. The syrup is mostly used as a base for brewing wine, beer and vinegar; but it is a natural sweetener and is a high energy food source. In the American Civil War, General Richard Garnett's defeated soldiers were able to consume just enough sap to keep them alive. Twenty years later, the course of the retreat was still visible from the trail of peeled Birch trees. Similarly, in 1814, the woods around Hamburg were devastated by Russian soldiers besieging the port and desperate for sap.
Picture
Henry David Thoreau's Birch tap made from Sumac, Concord Museum. Image By Daderot (Own work) via Wikimedia Commons
But it is not the bark, timber or sap that have given Birch a darker history - it is the uses to which the branches have been put - and I don't mean the bundles of twigs used as broom ends. The name 'Birch' is synonymous with corporal punishment; flogging with Birch rods replaced the notorious 'cat o' nine tails' as punishment on British naval vessels in the 19th century - presumably it was thought less cruel - but probably still pretty nasty!
'Birching', as it was known, became a common punishment of naughty school boys and juvenile offenders. These youngsters would have their buttocks birched, perhaps not the brutal flogging of sailors, but nevertheless a painful and humiliating experience. This image shows a magistrate's committal of two offenders for the punishment in Birmingham in 1899.
Less painfully, a Scandanavian tradition is that of self-birching during a sauna - though softer green shoots that are in leaf are used. The aim is for a slight sting and tingle rather than painful welts. But still weird?

Picture
A magistrates committal of two children for birching in 1899, Birmingham. Image By Oosoom at English Wikipedia (Own work) via Wikimedia Commons
Picture
Birching of an incarcerated delinquent - 17th Century German copper engraving

Birch rods are also seen in 'fasces'. These were bundles of rods tied together sheathing an axe head. They first appear with the Etruscans but were carried by Roman Lictors as a symbol of power - including the meting out of capital punishment - and strength through unity. The fasces symbol was adopted by Mussolini for his flag and gave rise to the name of the 'Fascist' party.
Picture
Emblem of the Italian National Fascist Party with fasces. Image via wikimedia commons
I have been unable to track down the definitive origin and meaning of the fasces with google. Why Birch rods? Why an axe head? But certainly one rod would likely break under the weight of an axe but collectively there is strength. This 'strength through unity' symbolism led to its use in the Lincoln memorial. Unnoticed by many, it is the major theme of the memorial - most obviously directly beneath the statue's hands (minus the axe) where thirteen rods represent the original thirteen states to gain independence from Britain, but also on the steps to the memorial (with the axe) and elsewhere. The building itself is supported, fasces-like, by 36 Doric columns representing the (then) 36 united states.
Picture
Fasces beneath Lincoln's hands. The thirteen rods represent the original thirteen states to gain independence from Britain. Image Daniel Chester French , via Wikimedia Commons
Picture
Lincoln memorial. Fasces are carved on the 10ft pillars either side of the steps and the building's columns represent a fasces. Image By David Bjorgen (Own work) via Wikimedia Commons
Finally - a return to the tree as a source of inspiration to poets and artists with the closing lines of Robert Frost's 'Birches' and John Everett Millais' painting 'The Knight Errant'.

I'd like to get away from earth awhile
And then come back to it and begin over.
May no fate willfully misunderstand me
And half grant what I wish and snatch me away
Not to return. Earth's the right place for love:
I don't know where it's likely to go better.
I'd like to go by climbing a birch tree,
And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk
Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more,
But dipped its top and set me down again.
That would be good both going and coming back.
One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.

Robert Frost.

Picture
Millais' The Knight Errant - caused uproar in the Victorian art world- presumably for the realistic treatment of the bark texture.....
Sources:
Carey, Frances - The Tree, Meaning and Myth
Johnson, Hugh - Trees
Mabey, Richard - Flora Britannica
Stafford, Fiona -  The Long, Long Life of Trees
Thomas, Peter - Trees: Their Natural History
Tudge, Colin - The Secret Life of Trees

Photo of Himalayan Birch with the kind permission of The Planted Garden nursery

2 Comments

    Author

    John Hearne

    Archives

    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016

    Categories

    All
    Apple
    Atypical Myopathy
    Birch
    Blackthorn
    Claret Ash
    Cypress
    Dove Tree
    Hawthorn
    Hazel
    Lime
    Magnolia
    Medlar
    Mistletoe
    Oak Processionary Moth
    Persian Ironwood
    Snowdrop & Snowbell Trees
    Snowy Mespilus
    Strawberry Tree
    Stuartia
    Sweet Chestnut
    Sycamore
    Tree Health
    Trees Of The Month
    Witch Hazel

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • Development and Planning
  • Safety and Risk Management
  • Protected Trees
  • Mortgage and Insurance Reports
  • About
  • Contact
  • Testimonials
  • Blog