The Birch


Latin name: Betula pendula and Betula pubescens

The birch is the most common deciduous tree around these parts. It is a tree that I follow the year round, both for its many faces and because its connection to my patron deity, Frigga.

Already at early spring I carefully cut some branches from the birch, bringing them indoors and decorating them with colorful feathers and red eggs. I let this celebration of spring coincide with the Christian Easter, both for convenience and for the pre-Christian significance still contained in many of the traditions. The delicate, light green leaves of the birch brighten the late winter – early spring home like nothing else.

All through May and the first part of June, young birches can be seen where ever people celebrate something; weddings or celebrations of leaving school being the most common.

At Midsummer in the last week of June, the birch is at its apex. All around Sweden, Midsummer poles clad in garlands of birch leaves and flowers are erected and danced around. This custom is most celebrated around here, where the Midsummer poles are left standing for the rest of the year.

In July and August, I personally think the birch is most beautiful. Maybe it’s because I connect the sound of mighty birches rustling in the warm summer wind, and their dark green foliage with my childhoods' summer holidays? Endless sunny days spent in the garden with grandma, swimming in the clear lakes and streams, or enjoying freshly picked strawberries with whipped cream.

When autumn and darkness comes, the white trunks of the birches and the fallen yellow leaves help guide me on my walks in the forest. A beautiful golden hued birch against a crisp blue October sky is one of those sights that leave you totally in the moment, at one with everything and with a warm feeling of the joy of being alive.

Even in winter the birch stands out among all the other deciduous trees, clearly recognizable with its white bark, clad in a stunning gown of white snow sprinkled with a myriad of ice crystals, the Ice queen of the winter forest.

The Birch and its Uses

The two most common species of birch around here are the Silver Birch (Betula pendula) and the White Birch (Betula pubescens). They look alike, apart from the White Birch having a whiter stem and the Silver Birch’s thinner branches are covered with very small bumps. They grow to be 20 – 25 meters high (the Silver Birch being the taller one) and can have a girth as great as 3 meters, although that is very uncommon.

Birches are among the first trees that sprout leaves in spring, and they are also among the first species to establish after a forest fire or deforestation.

Birch is mainly used for making furniture, it is very versatile and easy to bend while still tough, and it is hard enough to be used as floor boards. Birch should not be used outdoors without treating it first.

The bark has long been used to make all sorts of containers and other things; small boxes, shoes, horns and backpacks and it were also used as a water resistant layer on roofs. A decoction on birch ashes makes lye for washing clothes.

The Birch in Contemporary Herbal Medicine

Birch leaves are used as a mild sudorific and diuretic. The bark is used externally on eczemas and other kinds of rashes, or as an ingredient in baths used for these conditions. Tar from the birch is mixed into ointments and used for treating scabies and other skin parasites. The tar is also used to treat psoriasis and other chronic skin diseases.

The Birch in Folk Medicine

The birch has a high birch sugar content, which has been used since prehistoric days by tapping the sap and drinking it as it is, or reducing it to thick syrup, thus creating a strengthening formula with high energy content, perfect after a long and hard winter with little to eat.

Lumberjacks in both Sweden and Norway used a layer of the bark on the wound if they cut themselves accidentally, and wounds emitting fluid should be sprinkled with birch ashes.

The oil derived from burning a freshly cut twig was used on chapped hands and lips and on ring worm as well.

The Birch in Folk Magic

Just as most trees, a great deal of the birches’ magical properties is connected to protection. To keep witches away, they used to adorn the cow barn doors with birch twigs since they believed that the witch couldn’t pass until she had counted all the leaves.

Rats and other pests were kept away by using a bunch of twigs, either to sweep the cattle and the barn, or to be lain out on the floor.

Deities and Creatures Associated With the Birch

The birch is the tree of Frigga, and this is also indicated by the rune Bjarka, the Birch rune, that is the rune of Frigga as well.

Sources

Juneby, H.B., Fytomedicin - en fickhandbok om medicinalväxter. Artaromaförlaget, Gamleby 1999
Schön, E, Älvor, troll och talande träd. Semic, Sundbyberg 2000
Tillhagen, C-H, Skogarna och Träden. Carlssons, Stockholm 1995
www.naturcentrum.se/jattetrad
www.Wikipedia.org