Downy birch - Betula pubescens. Birch family - Betulaceae.
There is a tree, the color is green, in this tree there are four lands: the first - for the sick for health (bath broom), the second - from darkness light (rayon), the third - for the decrepit swaddling (birch bark, which was used to bind broken pots and make boxes and caskets from it), the fourth - for people well (birch sap).
An old Russian saying.
The birch plant is an unpretentious tree occupying such different habitats in terms of ecology that one can only marvel at its adaptive properties. Birch is typical for lowland and transitional bogs with sufficient aeration, birch grows well in swampy forests with almost stagnant water regime and in the mountains, where it rises to a height of 1500-2000 m above sea level. м. But the downy birch is especially abundant, of course, in the forests. The downy birch is widely distributed: in taiga regions of Europe, Asia, and the Caucasus.
The downy birch is a tree reaching 25 m in favorable conditions, but in bogs it often forms multi-stemmed bushes only 3-5 m high. Light white-barked trunks of downy birch make the bogs as if openwork, transparent. The leaves of the downy birch are ovate, rhombic and well distinguished from the triangular leaves of another widespread birch, the drooping birch, which does not grow in swamps. There are other distinguishing features: in the downy birch the twigs stick up, in the drooping birch - down; in the former they are fluffy, in the latter - with warts.
The downy birch blooms in spring, unfurling its long earrings at the same time as the leaves.
Look how the birches are covered with young leaves
Airy green through the air,
Translucent as smoke.
Ф. Tyutchev
The male, staminal earrings of the downy birch plant are long, flexible, two at each end of the twigs, while the female ones of the downy birch plant are shorter. The pollen of the downy birch is so plentiful that during the flowering period, eye-catching yellow clouds are carried in the air. Due to the abundance of seeds and special adaptations - two wings around the seed - the downy birch plant quickly and actively occupies vacant places, but easily penetrates both under the forest canopy and in swamps.
Birch has always been a favorite remedy for many ailments. Medicinal raw materials - buds of the birch plant and young leaves, birch sap and birch tar. Chemical studies have shown that the buds of the birch plant have essential oil (about 2%), vitamin C, carotene, tannins, flavonoids, higher fatty acids. Other parts of the birch tree were also studied: bark, leaves, pollen, and sap. Thus, the leaves of the birch plant contain essential oil, glycosides, vitamin C, phenols, tannins, coumarins, flavonoids, anthocyanins, and the juice of the birch contains carbohydrates (fructose, glucose), organic acids, enzymes, trace elements and substances with antimicrobial activity.
For treatment, young leaves and buds of the birch plant insist on vodka and drink as a diuretic, choleretic and for edema of cardiac origin. These tinctures also help with some stomach diseases, inflammation of the kidneys, bladder, as diaphoretic, disinfectant and expectorant. Birch buds are included in many therapeutic collections of diuretic teas. Birch sap is very popular and loved. During the sap-movement period, about 5 liters of birch sap can be obtained from one adult birch tree. It is not only delicious, but also a birch tree health drink. Birch sap has a strong diuretic effect. In medicine, the juice of birch fluffy is used for lung diseases, as a tonic, metabolic disorders, arthritis, eczema, lichens, rashes. Useful juice of birch downy with gout and rheumatism. In the old days in Russia birch sap treated non-healing wounds. The sap of downy birch can be evaporated to produce a sweet lemon-yellow syrup that has a delicate odor and a pleasant sour taste. This syrup has up to 70% sugar.
For therapeutic purposes, birch tar is also used, which is obtained from the bark of downy birch. The tar of the birch plant contains a lot of phenols, and it is used for the preparation of ointments and pastes, which treat some skin diseases, non-healing wounds, ulcers, bedsores. Furry birch tar is part of Vishnevsky's ointment and is popular in surgical practice. The essential oil extracted from birch tar is a good anthelmintic and diuretic. The range of useful properties of the downy birch is very wide. Thus, in Bulgaria, from birch sap is prepared kvass, use birch kvass to strengthen hair and stimulate their growth. Tannic, technical, decorative and fodder properties of birch trees are known. Birch wood is also of great practical importance: for carpentry and turning, for plywood, for fuel. Birch wood is also used to produce various chemicals: acetic acid, methyl, alcohol, activated carbon. The leaves of the birch plant, harvested in spring, can be used to make dye suitable for dyeing silk, wool and cotton. The old recipes have been preserved. For example, such (calculated for 100 g of yarn): 500 g of birch leaves boiled for 1 h, strain, in this decoction dip the yarn (previously boiled with 20 g alum for 30 min) - and the fabric will be colored bright yellow.
And one more aspect of the use of the birch plant: in the ancient Slavs birch bark replaced paper. Many birch bark letters are preserved in the cultural layers of ancient Novgorod. Phenols saved these letters of commendation from rotting.
In the bogs of both taiga and tundra there are several more species of birch trees: low birch, skinny birch, twisted birch, dwarf birch, oval-leaved birch, flat-leaved birch and others. A total of 10 species of the birch plant are found in "wet" areas, and each species of birch tree exhibits more or less pronounced medicinal properties..
