Introduction to Birch
The appeal of Birch

Birch (Betula) are highly valued in gardens, and not only for their barks. Their foliage is delicate, even ethereal in certain lights. New leaves have a translucent, shimmering quality and their autumn colour can be as stunning as any maple and less solidly brash.
But it is for their bark above all that most people are first persuaded to choose a birch for their garden, and its compelling attraction needs no emphasis. It is not only visual but tactile. The barks can reveal all sorts of colours, not only white but subtle gradations of pinks and yellows and copper to chocolate browns, perhaps with a misty bloom of white taking away the sometimes stark uniformity of the all-pervading 'white'. Whatever the colouring, the peeling of the thin, papery  bark is a particularly fascinating phenomenon in itself. Sheets and scrolls hang from the trees and rattle soulfully in the wind; glowing a brilliant orange when lit by the low winter sun and making the stems appear almost as if fringed with fire. New layers of bark revealed beneath are fresh, subtly coloured and velvety or shiny. Long, horizontal lenticels streak the stems in a swirling pattern. Even when they do not peel, birch stems are so often a shining brown, or they are flaky, or they are shiny and metallic.
Birch are recognised as trees of great merit in the garden or park; beautiful but not overpowering. Not surprising then that exotic Birch have been included in important landscape designs ever since the plant hunters of the 1800's began introducing them to this nation.

Birch are common throughout the Northern Hemisphere. These highly diversified trees and shrubs occupy habitats in cool, moist regions, including peatlands, stream banks, and lakeshores, cool, damp woods, and moist slopes in upland areas. They withstand exposure and in mountain ranges can be found high above any other deciduous tree.

Pioneers
Birch are a pioneer species, commonly found on open ground after disturbance or fire. They are capable of a weed-like rapid colonisation combined with fast early growth on poor soils and early seed production which other trees cannot usually match, especially in the more northerly latitudes. Birch act as soil improvers on waste ground, stabilising the ground with their roots and creating a nutrient-rich litter of leaf mould. They are intolerant of shade and will die back when eventually overshadowed by taller, more densely shading species.

Location, location, location
The seemingly endless presence of birch across the northern latitudes of Eurasia and North America suggests that their range may form a continuous ring, but for the intervening seas, spanning the land masses and islands encircling the North Pole. In fact their range more or less corresponds to the great belt of coniferous forest, the taiga. These coniferous forests with associated birch are also found at progressively higher altitudes on mountains as we move further south, as in high valleys in the Alps but especially in the great mountain ranges of western China, the Himalaya and in Japan. Their natural distribution also extends into the warmer climates of the more southern or lower altitude broadleaved deciduous forest zone.

Practical uses

The birch tree is, arguably, the most versatile tree in the northern forest. Every part of the tree has been used at one time or another by indigenous peoples. Cultures throughout the northern hemisphere have age-old traditions relating to the use of birch.

TRADITIONAL
Native peoples predominantly used sheets of bark. The sheets were shaped by folding, with or without cutting, strengthened and reinforced with stem material from willows, hazel and other species and laced together with materials such as spruce and willow root, and cedar and basswood inner bark. When sealed with pine pitch or spruce resin, the container could be used to carry water or hung over a fire to cook a soup or stew. Baskets of all sizes and shapes were made for use in gathering, preparing, cooking, and storing food, and transportation.

The most renowned of these "baskets" was the birch bark canoe. Lightweight and easily portable, a canoe made of birch bark could still carry heavy loads. An average-sized canoe was light enough to be carried by one person, and could be used in small streams as well as in the larger rivers.

Birch bark weaving seems to have been predominant in northern Europe and northern Asia (Siberia). Woven items cover a huge range of shapes and include baskets of many sizes, shoes, jewelry, mats, knife handles and sheaths.

Dwellings called wigwams were made using a framework of saplings, covered with overlapping layers of birch bark.

TIMBER
Birch wood is fine-grained and pale in colour, often with an attractive satin-like sheen. It is suitable for veneer, and birch ply is among the strongest and most dimensionally stable plywoods.
Due to birch pulp's short-fibre qualities, this hardwood can be used to make printing paper. In India the thin bark coming off in winter was used as writing paper. This has excellent life. The paper is known as bhoorj patra - literally "tree paper".
Birch twigs were bound in a bundle, also called birch, to be used for birching, a form of corporal punishment.
Birch is used as firewood due to its high calorific value per unit weight and unit volume. The bark is also used in starting fires. The bark will burn very well, even when wet, because of the oils it contains. With care, the bark can be split into very thin sheets that will ignite from even the smallest of sparks.

MUSIC
Baltic Birch is among the most sought after wood in the manufacture of speaker cabinets. Birch has a natural resonance that peaks in the high and low frequencies. This resonance compensates for the roll-off of low and high frequencies in the speakers, and evens the tone. Birch is known for having "natural EQ."
Birch drums have a natural boost in the high and low frequencies, which allow the drums to sound fuller.
Birch wood is sometimes used as a tonewood for semi-acoustic and acoustic guitar bodies and occasionally used for solid-body guitar bodies. It is also a common material used in mallets for keyboard percussion.

FOOD
In Belarus, Russia, the Baltic States, Finland, and parts of northern China, birch sap is consumed as a refreshing beverage, and is believed to have tonic qualities. It is watery, with a slightly sweet flavour, and is bottled commercially. The sap of particular birch species may also be rendered into birch syrup, vinegar, birch beer and wine. Xylitol can also be extracted from birch, a sugar alcohol artificial sweetener, which has shown effectiveness in preventing, and in some cases repairing, tooth decay.

Medical uses

In the days before modern medicine, the birch tree was an important source of folk remedies throughout the northern hemisphere. Used by many different tribes and civilisations.

LEAVES AND TWIGS
A tea brewed of the fresh or dried leaves was extensively used as a spring tonic, much needed in a season when fresh vegetables were not available. Birch tea contains some vitamin C and flavonoids as well as cleansing properties. It kills off harmful bacteria in kidneys and the urinary tract, lowers blood cholesterol and stimulates bile flow. People have used it with success for urinary infections, gout and as a 'blood cleanser' in degenerative diseases,  such as arthritis and rheumatism. Birch leaves are effective in lowering blood pressure, and an infusion of birch leaves will cool a fever and therefore aid the symptoms of the common cold. Very strong brews were used as disinfectant lotions for skin diseases, such as herpes, facial spots, and so on.

SAP
The sap has similar, some say superior-, medicinal properties to the leaf tea.

During Napoleon's ill-fated attempt to conquer Russia, his surgeon-general was so impressed with the efficacy of  Birch sap, that he called it "a universal panacea for peasants and gentry alike". The carbohydrates contained in this tonic juice were also a valuable addition to the spring diet when food was often extremely scarce in the cold Northern climate.

BARK
The bark is high in betulin and betulinic acid, phytochemicals which have potential as pharmaceuticals. The oil from the bark and buds keeps away insects and gnats, which are plentiful in the Northern areas. This same oil is also useful as a lotion for eczema and psoriasis and, due to its anti-septic properties, has been used in the manufacture of medicated soaps. Distillation of the bark yields Birch tar oil, an astringent ingredient of ointments for eczema and psoriasis. Native Americans boiled the bark to make poultices for minor wounds. An oil made by distilling the bark of the sweet birch was traditionally used for bladder infections, rheumatism, gout and nerve pain.

SCIENTIFIC CONSTITUENTS AND ACTIONS 
(Source: Bastyr College of Natural Medicine On-Line Database)

Constituents: Flavonoids, mainly hyperoside, with luteolin and quercetin glycosides. Actions: Diuretic, anti-inflammatory, antiseptic, tonic.

Indications: Birch leaves act as an effective remedy for cystitis and other infections of the urinary system as well as removing excess water from the body. Perhaps because of this cleansing diuretic activity, the plant has been used for gout, rheumatism and mild arthritic pain. The bark will ease muscle pain if it is applied externally, putting the fresh, wet internal side of the bark against the skin.

CURRENT RESEARCH EXPLORING "BETULIN" AND "BETULINC ACID" 
(Source: Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Databases of United States Department of Agriculture. )

Betulin and Betulinic acid have shown activity that inhibits skin cancer. 

White Birch Bark (Betulin)

Anticarcinomic; Antifeedant; Antiflu; Antiinflammatory; Antitumor; Antiviral; Aphidifuge; Cytotoxic; Hypolipemic; Prostaglandin-Synthesis-Inhibitor

Sweet Birch Bark -(Betulin and Betulinic Acid)

Anticarcinomic ; AntiHIV; Antiinflammatory; Antimalarial; Antimelanomic ; Antiplasmodial; Antitumor; Antiviral; Cytotoxic; Prostaglandin-Synthesis-Inhibitor

(This information has been gathered from a variety of international sources and we cannot confirm its accuracy. It is not intended as medical advice.)

Birch and folk-lore 
The lady of the forest

Folklore of the Birch abounds. It is known as the 'Mother tree' because it was the first to grow after the ice age retreated, hence it is associated with fertility. In Russia the Birch is known as the lady of the forest. In Norse tradition, it is associated with Freya - the lady of the forest. In several countries, any talk of ghostly white fairies or apparitions can inevitably be linked to the ghostly white bark of the Birch.
The head of the besom broom is traditionally made from Birch; hence there are many associations with witchcraft as well.
Springtime festivities often revolved around the 'bounds' of the parish or farm holding being beaten by a Birch branch, which was said to drive out evil spirits, allowing fertility of the land to thrive, a request to the spirits of the land for a full harvest. The traditional Maypole is made of Birch, taken from the woodland at the break of day and danced around in another fertility ritual.

Birch branches once adorned the church at Whitsuntide as symbols of rebirth, renewed life after the winter, possibly because they bear both male and female flowers on one tree, and were often given to those who are newly married to ensure fertility. In many places, girls would give their lovers a twig of Birch as a sign of encouragement. For a long time the "Besom Wedding" was considered legal and even in the 19th century many Irish navvies still regarded it so. A besom of Birch would be held at the doorway of their house, the couple would jump over it and then they were wed.
Babies cradles and rattles were often made of Birch, for the protection against all things evil, and to protect against the faery realm, who would often exchange a human child for a changeling or faery child. 
The Birch is also connected to the fly agaric mushroom, the preferred 'shroom' of the Shaman, with the fungus fly agaric found predominantly in Britain growing beneath a Birch tree.
Birch twigs have been used for flogging criminals and lunatics with the intent to 'drive out the evil spirits'. 
In Siberian funerals, the clothes and grave of the dead man were brushed with Birch twigs to purify them of evil. Birch bark was laid over the graves and sometimes Birch trees would be planted at the grave.