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In ancient times, birch bark was often stripped and rolled to make torches and used as a substitute to paper. Birch twigs were also used to make brooms. The bark has been used to make a plethora of things. Sheets of bark were perfect as paper substitutes. Applied to roofs, it provided a level of waterproofing against the rain. You could mould the bark into shoes, or use strips woven together to make baskets for soft fruit. Though nature is at its lowest ebb at Yule, we still find a way to bring the power of the landscape in to our homes and communities. Ash and birch are central and essential to the Yule celebration. Though emphasising different elements of life and death and perhaps holding different levels of cultural importance in Scotland and England. This Yuletide maybe bring a little of the protective magic of birch and ash into your home. Not only for the light and warmth but also to keep alive a tradition with roots far deeper than any tree. References & Further Reading Birching featured in the French Revolution. One leader of the revolution, Anne-Josèphe Théroigne de Méricourt, went mad, ending her days in an asylum after a public birching. On 31 May 1793 the Jacobin women seized her, stripped her naked, and flogged her on the bare bottom in the public garden of the Tuileries. [6]
In the Australian state of Victoria, birches for the judicial punishment of juvenile offenders were made of "willow withes soaked in water". Benson, G. Flogging: The Law and Practice in England, Howard League for Penal Reform, London, 1937, Appendix I: The Law and Practice of Other Countries. OCLC 5780230 Beith , M (1995) Healing Threads. Traditional medicine of the highlands and islands. Polygon. Edinburgh. In the United Kingdom, birching as a judicial penalty, in both its juvenile and adult versions, was abolished in 1948, but it was retained until 1962 as a punishment for violent breaches of prison discipline. The punishment of Birching and cat o' nine tails continued to be used in Northern Ireland into the 1940s. [7]
Cutting the clippings
Birch leaves are bright green, and in spring the trees make wonderful splashes of colour against the darker shades of a pine forest; they will turn a vibrant golden yellow in autumn. The leaves of a silver birch are triangular and finely serrated, while downy birch leaves are more rounded at the base with fine hairs on the underside. Because the two species sometimes hybridise, it can be difficult to tell them apart. Birches by Loch Creran of broadleaved woodland in the UK consists of birch, and this figure rises to nearly 50% in Scotland, where the upland birch woods also support rowan, ash, willow, juniper and aspen. Birch flowers are pollinated by the wind, and hundreds of seeds are produced by each catkin. These rely on the wind once more for their dispersal. A large birch tree may produce up to a million seeds each year, though only a small fraction of these will germinate. The short, slender branches rise to a pyramid-like crown on younger trees and become pendulous on older trees. MacEoin, Uinseann (1997), The IRA in the twilight years 1923-1948, Argenta Publications, Dublin, pg 456, ISBN 0951117246
Over 300 insect species are associated with birch, including a lot of aphid species. In turn, this means that Birch trees are great for ladybirds who feast on the aphids. Moths such as Angleshades, Buff tip, and Kentish Glory have Birch as host plant for their caterpillars. Nightjar Caprimulgus europaeus settled on the ground in birch scrub The white bark sets these trees apart from others, and the little triangular leaves with their jagged edges are unlike other large tree leaves. Step 3: Put one heaped teaspoon of the silver birch twig tea in a pot or tea ball, and brew for between 1 to 5 minutes. Everyone’s palate is different, so find your own preference. Silver Birch Twig Tea
Uses of downy birch
And so it was on this ice cold Saturday. Suddenly a Muse filled me with images of a Japanese Tea Ceremony. So strong I could almost smell the tea! The bark of a mature silver birch is a beautiful milky white with a texture like paper, and it will peel to reveal dark fissures as the tree ages. Younger twigs may be reddish in colour, becoming paler as they develop. The bark of downy birch is greyish brown, and patterned with darker horizontal grooves. Both species have long and slender branches, those of the silver birch tending to droop gracefully while those of the downy birch are carried more upright. Silver birch bark With links to protection and fertility, and the ability to heal skin diseases and be used for building canoes, it’s a fascinating tree. The sap of the Birch was gathered and made into wine. This was fed to those afflicted with kidney stones, or urinary tract infections.
During the recent snow, I gathered silver birch twigs ( Betula pendula) from outside my local police station, under the watchful eye of the local constabulary. Warren, P. (2006) British native trees: their past and present uses?: including a guide to burning wood in the home. Dereham. Wildeye. Easy-care evergreen pots to add interest and structure to your garden all year round. 10+ plant choices for evergreen trees, shrubs and grasses for pots. Another device used to immobilise offenders was a birching table, used in Scotland, with two holes in it through which the offender's arms were inserted but otherwise left free and untied. The offender's feet were tied into position and a strap fastened immediately above the waist. [5] I don’t dig up dahlias to store them at the end of the summer. And before you dig your dahlias up, it’s important to know the pros and cons. You…Personally, I stay away from hyper processed ‘alternative’ sweeteners. Nutritional Profile Of Birch Silver birch bark is what gives the tree its name. It’s paper white, and can be peeled from the tree in sheets. There are often dark diamonds present, and older trees may have far darker trunks, especially towards the tree base. Birch sap has long been purported to have many health-giving benefits, including being helpful for the kidneys and bladder, for rheumatism, and was considered a general tonic. Judicial birching in 20th-century Britain was used much more often as a fairly minor punishment for male juveniles, typically for petty larceny, rather than as a serious penalty for adult men. This was applied to boys aged up to 14 in England and Wales, and up to 16 in Scotland. In this juvenile version, the birch was much lighter and smaller, and the birch was administered privately by a policeman, usually immediately after the magistrate's court hearing, either in a room in the court building or at the nearest police station. Downy birch have less jagged margin teeth than the Silver birch, and the leaves are diamond-shaped, and less rounded. However, the two birches frequently hybridize, hence me popping them into the same blog.
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