Slender beauties of birch, which can be found not only in forests, but also in city parks, on streets and in squares, were once animated by ancient Slavs and Druids and were considered sacred. The Birch family includes 6 genera of trees, which are divided into 234 species.
The most beloved and revered among the peoples of different countries was precisely birch. She was dedicated to poetry, composed legends about her, used her healing juices and brought gifts. All trees belonging to the Birch family (representatives - hornbeam, alder, hazel, birch and others) have healing properties that are still used in medicine today.
Birch family
Anyone who has ever been to a birch grove knows that the air there is unusually clean. This is due to the fact that the leaves of this tree secrete volatile production - special antibacterial substances that can purify polluted air. This feature was known to people of antiquity, it was also used by modern urban planners to clean the city streets from exhaust gases. That is why the most common tree in any public park is from the birch family. It also includes: hornbeam, hazel, alder, hmelegrab and ostriopsis.
The well-known white birch is divided into warty and fastigiata. The Birch family belongs to deciduous trees, wind-pollinated and monoecious.
Warty birch
Warty birch (Betula verrucosa) grows in Europe, North America, Central Asia and North Africa. This tree reaches 30 m in height and can live up to 120 and even more years. The young tree has a brownish bark, but by the age of 8 it turns white. It was for her color that she got her name. Translated from ancient Celtic betu means "white", so the dye in birch bark is called betulin.
The warty birch got its name thanks to the resinous glands located on its branches and looking like small warts. Leaves are what unites the Birch family. The general characteristic concerns, first of all, them. They are double-toothed, successive, reaching a length of 4 to 7 cm, a width of 2 to 5 cm in most species of birch. More often they are smooth or slightly covered with villi, but are also found with “felt” pubescence.
The root system of warty birch is powerful, but can be both superficial and deep. It prefers fertile, fertilized and rich in minerals. This tree blooms from April to May, the fruits (small nuts) ripen in August – September. Propagated by seeds.
Birch Fastigiata
This variety of warty birch differs from it in the structure of the crown. It is narrow and wedge-shaped, and the branches stretch upward, in contrast to its drooping “cousin”. With a small height - only 10 m, Fastigiata (Birch family) has a very powerful root system and a wind-resistant trunk.
This tree grows very quickly - up to 40 cm per year, and life expectancy rarely exceeds 100 years. The foliage is the same as that of warty birch, but lasts much longer until late autumn. Blooms in small green, irregularly shaped flowers up to 1 cm long.
This tree tolerates arid summers as well as cold winters equally well. Natural pests are the May beetle, the pipe-driver (beetle), the bucephalus crested, the sapwood birch and the silkworm nun.
Alder
Although the alder belongs to the Birch category, the family cannot boast of a more extraordinary tree than this. It is unique in everything:
- Firstly, it blooms first and then leaves the leaves.
- Secondly, the alder "opens" the spring. Its flowering begins when snow still lies on the ground, and heat is only predicted in the air.
- Thirdly, its leaves do not turn yellow, but fall green in late autumn.
- Fourth, alder foliage is so filled with nitrogen that it itself fertilizes the soil on which the tree grows.
- Fifth, the unique property of its wood to become harder under the influence of moisture makes it indispensable in the construction of wells and the manufacture of barrels.
Although there are up to 50 species of this tree, the two most common are black alder and gray alder. The name is black (adhesive - the second name) it received due to its trunk, which darkens as it grows older. Glue it is called because of the leaves. Most often grows alone or in a group of the same trees. Black alder begins to bloom in April, and the fruits fully ripen only after a year. Loves light and moisture.
The gray alder has not only a trunk of this color, but also leaves. Unpretentious, frost-resistant and grows even on poor soil. Since gray alder has the property of rapidly growing into impenetrable thickets, it is most often planted to fix the banks and slopes of troughs and ravines.
Hornbeam
The Birch family also includes hornbeam. China and Asia are considered his homeland. It feels great both in the shade and in the sun, but prefers moist soil, so in a dry summer it needs additional watering.
By the life span, the hornbeam does not fit into the Birch family, the characteristics of the representatives of which generally coincide, and the average figure reaches 100-120 years. The same tree easily lives up to 300 years, growing in height to 30 m, and in width - up to 8 m.
Hornbeam blooms in small male and female inflorescences in the form of earrings, but begins to bear fruit only after 15-20 years. The wood of this tree is used for the manufacture of furniture and kitchen utensils, but only after special treatment from decay, since it absorbs moisture and quickly deteriorates.
Hazel
The whole birch family, whose representatives bear nuts, cannot boast of such delicious fruits as hazel. Hazel, as it is popularly called, has the shape of leaves resembling a bream, for which it was called hazel. Above they are dark green, and below - light.
Common hazel rarely grows above 7 m, has flowers of two types - male in the form of earrings and female, resembling buds. The fruits of this tree are light brown in color, edible and have both excellent taste and good.
Sometimes common hazel is called hazelnut, but this is not entirely true. Hazelnuts are its cultivated species, and its fruits are much larger and more nutritious.
In total, there are 20 species of hazel in nature, some of which are bushes, and others are tall trees, reaching 30 m in height, for example, like a bear nut, growing up to 200 years. A hazel-leaved variety - a shrub of the birch family - does not exceed 3 meters in height and gives the same tasty, but not as nutritious fruits as its ordinary variety.
Hmelegrab
This tree is poorly known in Europe, as its species grow in North America, Japan, Asia Minor and the Caucasus.
Hmelegrab grows up to 25 m in height, has a tent-like shape of a crown, brown bark and fine-tooth alternate leaves. In nature, there are only 4 types of these trees:
- Virgin Hmelegrab (American) is found on the streets and parks of Kiev, Moscow and St. Petersburg, but is less common than all of the birch family.
- The ordinary hop-hornbeam loves heat, and therefore grows in the Caucasus, the Mediterranean and Asia Minor.
- Japanese - found only in China and Japan.
- Nolton Hmelegrab grows only in North America, is not known in Europe at all.
Attempts to grow species of these trees in places with cold winters have so far failed.
Ostriopsis
It is a genus of flowering shrubbery plants that are home to China and Mongolia. They grow from 3 m to 5 m in height and stand out in 2 species:
- Ostriopsis David is a shrub of 3 m in height with wide ovoid leaves, pubescent shoots and stamen flowers in cylindrical earrings.
- Noble Ostriopsis - has male and female flowers and fruits in the form of small nuts collected in fruit.
This plant is poorly known in Europe, so you can see it only in his homeland.