How many years does birch live?
Birch has long been considered the most beloved tree of poets, artists and ordinary people. They wrote poems about her, sang songs, painted her in paintings, and used her in medicine. This is a beautiful tree with interesting coloration, tasty sap and medicinal pollen. Throughout her life, a person uses healing branches, leaves, buds, bark. People think that birch lives forever.
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Birch. Types and life expectancy
There are about 120 species of birch; 64 species are found in the forests of Russia. The average life span of a birch is about a hundred years and depends on the living conditions. In principle, this is an unpretentious tree that can live well in any soil. The main thing that the soil was wet, as birch loves water and consumes up to 250 liters per day.
In Russian forests, birch trees live no more than 120 years, with the exception of iron birch, which has a lifespan of almost 400 years.
Even 100 years ago, birch was a rarer tree than it is now. It grew mainly along river banks and in the forests in place of fallen conifers. So it grew in different places in the taiga. For more than 150 years, birch has not lingered in one place.
Birch also has permanent habitats. On the border of the forest near the Arctic Circle, a sinuous birch grows, in the Pamirs - Pamir with pink bark, in the Caucasus - Radde birch, also with pink bark, in Transbaikalia - black birch with shaggy bark.
Stone birch grows in the Far East. Its age is 3-4 times more than white birch and is 500 years old. Its trunk is more like an apple tree, the only difference is in the bark. The color of the bark does not resemble either a birch or an apple tree. It is a pink-gray bark that falls behind the tree itself and hangs down in long strips.
Warty birch or drooping birch is widespread. It grows quite quickly, starting from the age of 10, it grows by 75-90 cm per year and lives for 50-60 years.
Application in medicine
In folk medicine, everything that birch can give is used. Her the juice - an excellent immunostimulating, cleansing and vitamin remedy. Brooms for a bath are made from branches and leaves, which, under the influence of hot air in the bath, release essential healing oils, which have a beneficial effect on the condition of the skin and the whole human body.
In many diseases, birch buds help well, because they contain essential oils, tannins, resins, grape sugar, flavonoids and ascorbic acid. It is a good antiseptic and expectorant agent that is used to treat diseases of the respiratory system. In addition, they are used in the form of lotions or dressings for various soft tissue wounds.
Birch sap is recommended for use in case of poisoning and cancer. It perfectly stimulates metabolism, has a diuretic and antihelminthic effect.
Birch leaves have a bactericidal effect, help to cope with headaches, rheumatism, and nervous system disorders. Decoctions and infusions are used in treatment upper respiratory tract, arthritis, in gynecology and dermatovenerology.
These are not all diseases that birch can treat.
Grow a birch on your own
Any gardener dreams of having a long-lived birch on his site. It's easy to grow her. Saplings you can buy ready-made ones, it is desirable that they be with an earthen clod on the roots.
They dig a fairly deep hole, add a mixture of garden soil, humus, sand and peat there.
If planting occurs in the spring, you can add a complex fertilizer, in the fall - phosphorus-potassium in the amount of 200 grams. The distance between seedlings should be at least 4 meters, since the birch root system is actively developing and requires a lot of space.
You can grow birch from seeds that are sown in shallow holes and covered with a layer of humus. Before planting, they must be kept in the cold for a month, then dried at room temperature. Seeds are sown in early winter in already frozen soil or in early spring, immediately after the snow melts.
By cultivating is a healing tree, it is important to pay attention to the control of weeds that can interfere with the development of the plant. You need to weed the soil regularly, but not deeper than 3 cm, so as not to damage the roots. In order to prevent fungi and various pests, the crown of the tree should be sprayed with fungicides and insecticidal preparations every year.
To form a beautiful tree shape, it is recommended to prune branches annually. This is done in early spring before the birch sap begins to stand out.
Having grown a birch on your site, you can use its healing properties throughout your life. She will become an irreplaceable assistant in the fight against many diseases. Due to its impressive lifespan, birch will be useful for more than one generation.