Birch. Beithe. The first ogham of the cycle, the first tree of the year’s wheel. Tough and resilient. One of the first to colonise neglected agricultural land, a coppiced woodland, the aftermath of a forest fire, wild lands, rocky slopes, retreating ice. A pioneer tree, preparing the ground, opening the ways. One of the first trees to push out leaves in spring. A tree of beginnings and bursts of fresh energy. Le Mat of the Marseille Tarot (often called the Fool), setting off on a journey. What lies ahead?
Silver birch (betula pendula) and downy birch (betula pubescens) are native to the British Isles and are found in highland and lowland, windswept and secluded, sunny and shady. Pendula prefers heathland, open woodland and scrubland. Pubescens prefers damper soils, even tolerating waterlogged or peaty conditions. Both are relatively short-lived, rarely exceeding 100 years, sometimes longer – and slower – in the Scottish Highlands.
A fertile tree, thrusting up through the rough landscape, connected to Beltane, the great festival of spring, conception, fertility and fecundity. She is Freya’s tree. She is Venus’s tree. Love, fertility, sensuality, beauty.
The papery bark, depending on the birch variety, is silver, white, yellow or ruddy, the trunks slender, flexible, muscular, gracious, and very beguiling. At dusk and at night a birch woodland is awesome and mysterious. A moony tree, reflecting light in the shadows. Spectacular in the snow.
A hardy tree, sandwiching between mossy boulders, thrusting its roots into rocky clefts, clutching at the crags. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, in ‘The Picture; or, The Lover’s Resolution,’ captures this beautiful scene:
And hark, the noise of a near waterfall!
I come out into light – I find myself
Beneath a weeping birch (most beautiful
Of forest trees, the lady of the woods),
Hard by the brink of a tall weedy rock
That overbrows the cataract.
Robert (Rabbie) Burns, in ‘The Lea-Rig,’ likewise paints the misty birch:
Down by the burn where scented birks
Wi’ dew are hangin clear
Birch twigs have traditionally been bundled into a broom to clean, to sweep away the old, the outworn, the stagnant. Mischief-makers were flogged with birch to drive out the mischief. Birch switches are often used in saunas to awaken the skin and invigorate the body. Babies’ cradles were often made of birchwood. New life accompanying new life. Birch purifies, cleanses, renews, brightens.
The birch is friend of mycorrhizal fungi. Orange birch boletes, woolly milk cap, birch milk cap, birch knight, birch brittlegill, chanterelles, ceps – and the eye-catching fly agaric (amanita muscaria) – all flourish in the acidic soil in which the birch flourishes. Beneath the birch synaptic pathways of the mycelial-treeroot network buzz with signals and information.
Birch, like Alder, is a Monoecious Hermaphrodite. Each individual tree has both male and female flower clusters, called catkins or aments.
The sap may be collected in a pail like maple syrup and boiled into syrup or fermented into wine.
The bark may be peeled (or picked off the ground) and unfurled and used as parchment. Perfect for leaving an ogham message; enigmatic, transient, organic.
In North America, the bark of the paper birch (betula papyrifera) has long been prized for its flexibility and water resistance and is used to cover canoes, cabins and tepees. The Treaty Canoe, hanging in Keynes College foyer, is a traditional cedar-framed, birch bark canoe of the Anishinaabe people (Ojibwe, Odawa, Pottawatomi) from the Great Lakes area; the thin hull papered with hand-drawn copies of treaties between First Peoples and settlers – most of which, like at Standing Rock today, were torn up by the settlers.
The bark has been traditionally used for tanning leather.
Birchwood is strong and flexible. Often used in the production of skateboards.
Birchwood is used for speaker cabinets and drums. Birch sings nicely.
Birchwood is strong and heavy, traditionally used for furniture, handles and toys. It was used to make bobbins, spools and reels for the Lancashire cotton industry.
An infusion made from birch leaves is used as a diuretic and cleansing agent to the urinary tract, helpful in treating kidney stones, cystitis and urinary tract infections. This infusion can also be used to cleanse the body of excess water. The leaves have also been used to treat gout, rheumatism and arthritis.
The birch is threatened. In Scotland, widespread dieback of young birch (both silver and downy) was reported from 1999 / 2000. Whilst the cause is attributed to two types of fungus and a beetle, these pathogens affect trees already stressed. This stress may in turn be attributed to water, air and soil contamination, climatic changes, non-native tree species and herbicides.
Yet the birch is tough. The population on the US Pacific North West and western Canada recovered from a catastrophic dieback in the 1930s and 40s. Let us hope the dieback is tackled in time, and that this strength of recovery is not needed today.
Birch is The Giving Tree. Bless the birch!