Why does birch have black stripes? Birch is a symbol of Russia. Why are black stripes needed on a birch trunk?
Birch is one of the main images of folk art. In songs, fairy tales, and legends, birch is a symbol of spring and the Motherland. The favorite tree was endowed with the most affectionate epithets. She was called slender, curly, thin, white, fragrant, cheerful. There are countless sayings, proverbs, and riddles associated with birch:The birch tree is not a threat - where it stands, it makes noise. The birch bark is white, but the tar is black. Green, not a meadow, white, not snow, curly, not a head. In folk superstitions, the birch tree is closely associated with agriculture: A lot of sap flows from the birch tree - for a rainy summer. If the birch tree opens its leaves in front of the alder, the summer will be dry, if the alder is wet in advance.
Folk wisdom has long been able to appreciate the wonderful healing properties of birch. Already in the herbalists of the 16th century. You can find instructions on how to use birch leaves and buds, birch bark, called birch bark, and birch sap. Modern medicine has also recognized the wide healing capabilities of birch.
Of the 120 species of birch trees found on Earth, about 40 species grow in Russia. The most common is the warty birch (silver birch), reaching a height of 20 meters, the age of which does not exceed 120 years.
The outside of the birch tree is covered with a continuous sheath of bark. Birch bark consists of many thin, elastic, smooth, durable layers that are easily separated from each other, impermeable to moisture and air and practically resistant to rotting. Every year these layers grow, and the bark becomes thicker. By the number of thin layers, as well as by the annual rings of wood, the age of the tree can be determined. The outer layers of warty birch are usually white and differ only in shades of color. The inner layers facing the bast come in a variety of shades, from yellow to dark brown. It is these inner layers of birch bark, as the most durable and beautiful ones, that are used by craftsmen in the manufacture of products such as front side. The outer, flaky layers are called wrong side, and they have no practical significance.
In addition to color, birch bark gives special attractiveness lentils - small narrow stripes of black or brown color. In summer they are open and gas exchange occurs through them; sometimes they are called vents. For the winter, the lentils close, filling with a special substance.
The best birch bark for all types of products is wide-layered, layered, smooth, thin with small lentils, warm and velvety to the touch, tensile, yellow, golden-yellow or yellow-green.
Thin birch bark occurs in birches aged from 20 to 40 years with a smooth, even trunk (diameter more than 150 - 200 mm), without painful thickenings, sagging, knots, cuts, pronounced crusts and mushrooms. This birch is more often found on pine forest slopes, in mixed forests with moderate shade. The exception is the case when birch bark is needed for slotted thread. Then they look for young trees no older than 15-16 years old. Sometimes birch bark with a thickness of up to 2 mm or more is required for the manufacture of large products - tues, large boxes, etc.
Birch trees with thick bark often grow on the outskirts of fields and forest edges. Their birch bark has long, wide lenticels, smooth, strong, low-extensibility, yellow, sometimes reddish, or even multi-colored: yellow on the north side, reddish on the south. This is second-grade birch bark. It requires a lot of effort and time to process. Birch bark from birches growing in peaty, swampy places or separately in open spaces is fragile, low-stretch, with many small and large blackened lentils, thick, spotted, scabbed, with holes from insect passages, one-sided, with thickenings. It's better not to take this one.
The timing of birch bark harvesting may vary depending on the geographical zone, the place where birch grows, the time of onset and the nature of spring. Birch bark is usually firmly connected to bast. In late spring, when the snow melts during the period of sap flow, you can remove birch bark in small quantities using a specially made wooden tool that resembles a chisel. At this time, a coating of dark brown splint layer is observed on the inner layer of birch bark. Such birch bark is often used in products with decorative elements by scraping out the splint layer.
In the Komi Republic, near the city of Syktyvkar, the most favorable periods for harvesting birch bark are observed from June 20 to July 10. During this period, birch sap can no longer be obtained. The tree leaf gains strength and turns dark green. In persistent hot weather, after cutting the birch bark on a tree trunk, it comes off without effort.
During this period, you need to visit the forest more often to determine the disappearance of birch bark. At the end of the harvesting period, the birch bark dries to the trunk and harvesting becomes practically impossible.
“We have a birch tree in every song, a birch tree under every window,” is sung in a beautiful song by composer A. Ponomarenok based on poems by M. Agashina. And it’s hard to argue with this - this tree has truly become a kind of symbol of our country. The attitude towards the birch has always been special - for example, it was an important “character” in the Semik rites, which in the Christian era coincided with the holiday of the Holy Trinity, and even in the Orthodox Church the custom of bringing birch branches to the temple on this holiday has been preserved...
The unusualness of this tree lies primarily in the color of the bark - it is not easy to find another tree with white bark! True, not all types of birch have this feature - for example, in Transbaikalia, the Daurian birch with dark bark grows, on the Kuril Islands and in Japan - red birch, which received this name because of its red-orange color... But in our area, birches are white with black spots.
Why birches are white was explained by the outstanding Russian chemist T.E. Lovitz (1754-1804). He isolated a crystalline organic substance from birch bark, which was named betulin (from the Latin name of birch - betula).
Betulin is a white resinous substance that fills the cavities of the cells of birch cork tissue - this is what gives birch bark its white color. After all, the content of betulin in it is enormous: in different types of birch it ranges from 14% to 44%. What does such an evolutionary acquisition give the tree?
First of all, betulin is rich in silver ions. And silver, as is known, has bactericidal properties, so betulin is a wonderful natural antiseptic that protects the tree from infections. It is not for nothing that birch has long been known as a medicinal plant - its juice was used to treat skin diseases, as well as colds. However, the matter is not limited to this: tea from birch buds is an excellent diuretic, a tonic drink rich in vitamins was prepared from its leaves, and people living near a birch grove get sick an order of magnitude less thanks to the volatile bactericidal substances of this tree. For the same reason, people with weak lungs are advised to take more walks in birch groves.
But let's return to betulin. It not only protects against bacteria, it is also directly related to the property of birch, such as frost resistance - it was this that helped this tree take root in cold Russia all the way to the tundra. The frost resistance of birch is truly amazing: during laboratory experiments, birch branches restored their viability after being in a chamber with a temperature of minus 273 degrees!
So, we've sorted out the white color - but what about the black spots?
They are called lentils. The fact is that neither water nor gases pass through the top layer of birch bark - birch bark. This is also a protective property, but such protection could “strangle” the tree if it did not have an “entrance gate” through which the tree can breathe. These “entrance gates” are the lentils with their loose tissue.
As you can see, the fact that it was the birch that became the “Russian beauty” is quite natural: this tree is perfectly adapted to life in our harsh climate.
Lyshchenko Irina, 3rd grade student of the Volosovskaya Primary Secondary School
I chose this topic for my research because this issue is of interest not only to children, but to serious adults - professors and academicians. I became interested in finding out where the whitest birches grow, and how this tree differs from other trees. Starting to work on this topic, I put forward several hypotheses and suggested that the white birch is due to unusual substances in its bark, perhaps this is a protective property of the birch, and perhaps in this way the birch attracts insects during flowering.. .
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The work was completed by a 3rd grade student
Lyshchenko Irina
“WHY IS BIRCH WHITE?”
Volosovo
2013
Introduction
Why this topic was chosen:
I chose this topic for my research because this issue is of interest not only to children, but also to serious adults - professors and academicians.
Purpose of the study:find out why the birch is still white?
Research objective:
- find in additional sources information about what types of
Birches;
Find out what is unusual about them;
Find out where the whitest birches grow and how they differ from others
Trees.
Hypothesis: white birch possible
To attract insects;
Due to unusual substances in the bark;
This is its protective property.
Used materials:
The following materials were used in the research: the Internet, children's encyclopedias, personal observations.
- Characteristics of birch.
Birch is a beautiful tree30-45 m high with thin, hanging branches and a white trunk.
Nature has not given white bark to any plant except birch. True, the bark remains smooth and white only on young trees. On old trunks it cracks heavily on the outside and becomes black and gray, especially in the lower part.
The crown is often weeping due to the fact that the branches are “dangling” (hence the name of the plant).Young branches are red-brown, with resinous warts, which is why this birch is called warty.
The buds are small, oily, and contain a lot of essential oils.
The leaves are round and toothed; fruits - nuts. The weight of 1000 fruits is only 0.1 g. The flowers are small, inconspicuous, collected in inflorescences - earrings.
In the conditions of Central Russia, birch blooms in early May and even at the end of April. At the same time, the birch tree blooms. The fruits ripen in July-August and immediately begin to fall.
The age limit of most birches does not exceed 100-120 years, although individual trees can reach 300 years.
The vitality of this “miracle tree” still surprises scientists. During the experiments, birch branches were placed in chambers where terrible frost reigned - minus 273 degrees Celsius. But when the branches were taken out of the chamber, they thawed and came to life.
- Birch distribution.
Many types of birch trees grow in temperate and cold zones of Eurasia and North America. However, birch does not tolerate extreme heat, which limits its distribution in the south.
There are about 120 species. They differ in height and bark color. There are also bushes among the birches. The most famous of them, dwarf birch, grows in the tundra of Siberia. It reaches only 1 m in height.
Not all birch trees are white. The “Daurian” birch has dark bark; it grows in Transbaikalia. But “red” birches grow in the Kuril Islands and the Japanese Islands. They got their name because their wood is orange-red. There are also Schmidt birches that are not white at all. It is also called “iron” because the wood of this birch is stronger than cast iron.
The whitest birches grow in the mountains. “Paper birch” is in the mountains of America, “useful” is in the Himalayas, and “fluffy” is in the mountains of Scotland.
There are four types of birch growing on the territory of the Russian Federation: common white birch, warty birch and weeping birch; fluffy birch; shrub birch and dwarf.
- The structure of the woody layer of birch.
The woody layer of birch is bark. The bark is usually smooth, covered with a layer of cork fabric - birch bark. Most often white with black stripes, but there is yellowish or pinkish, very rarely even black.
Dark horizontal stripes are stretched over the white trunk. These are lentils. They peel off easily. Birch bark does not allow water or gases to pass through, and through the loose tissue of the lentils, oxygen necessary for the tree to breathe enters the trunk.
If you cut a birch trunk in early spring, clear, sweet-tasting sap will begin to ooze out drop by drop from the cut.
- Why are birch trees so white?
A) It’s a matter of the composition of the birch wood layer. If you remove a piece of bark from a tree, you will be left with something like a white powder on your fingers. This substance is called betulin - a white organic pigment and is released from the cells of the cortex.It contains a lot of silver ions, which have an antimicrobial effect. In the bark of the “ribbed” birch its content exceeds 5%, in the “layered” birch the content of betulin reaches 14%, and in the “Manzhurskaya” bark – up to 27%.
Of the species growing in Russia, the maximum content of betulin is observed in the bark of the downy birch - up to 44%
B) The fact is that in the mountains there is very hard ultraviolet radiation, and it was to reflect it that plants over millions of years “learned” to protect the trunk with a white mirror.
- Research result.
As a result of my research, the hypothesis that insects are attracted by the white color of birch bark was not confirmed. Insects are most attracted to the smell of young leaves and flowers.
The hypothesis about the presence of an unusual substance in birch bark was confirmed by research by scientists and personal observations. When you tear off a piece of birch bark, a white velvety coating remains on your fingers.
And the fact that birches can be very white, just white, and not white at all depends on the place where they grow. Russia has the best conditions for their growth, but in the north and in the mountains the conditions are difficult. This confirms the hypothesis about the protective properties of birch.
Conclusion:
The white color of birch bark is given by a resinous substance - betulin.
White trunked trees,
Black and white bark.
Yes, only birch has two barks. White and black speckled. The birch tree is considered a symbol of Russia. Black bark is the lungs of the tree. The birch tree breathes through these specks.
If you try to answer figuratively, then you can compare black stripes with light trees. If you look for a more scientific explanation, you can find confirmation that this is not just a bizarre and undoubtedly beautiful pattern on the birch table in the form of black stripes, but also lenticels (another name for the black stripes on the birch trunk) a device through which oxygen enters. With each year and the growth of the tree, lentils appear more clearly and their number increases.
so that in winter they don’t confuse it with a snowdrift, for example, partridges and get killed. or the same hunter on skis, all happy and joyful, hearing how I’m going. and the hell is there. maybe the skis don’t work... or else it’s with stripes and everyone’s fine, everyone’s happy)
It’s unlikely that this is for something specific, it’s just that everything in nature is beautiful, and such a beautiful tree as birch is sung by poets and lyricists because it is part of Russian culture, its patterns are just a decoration that gives aesthetic pleasure.
Very good question! How nice it is to look at the birch tree, the symbol of Russia! The white trunk with transverse black lines is pleasing to the eye. But this is not just a decoration, these are devices through which the tree trunk breathes. It’s just that in leaves the process of gas exchange and removal of excess moisture passes through the stomata. But the tree bark has already overgrown these devices, so they use lentil dashes. It’s just that the birch trunk itself is white due to betulin, which is why the lentils stand out so clearly.
Black stripes on birch plants are really necessary. And even vitally necessary for such trees. Without them they simply could not exist.
The whole point is that oxygen flows through the black stripes. This is how the birch tree breathes. Therefore, for a normal life, birch trees appear such stripes on the bark.
In addition, a birch without black marks would lose its uniqueness and individuality. Although this was originally intended by nature, this gives the trees a special beauty. Whether this tree can be called the most beautiful or not is everyone’s business. But it seems to me that birches are very good trees. And the stripes don't spoil them.
The black stripes on birch have their own name; they are called lentils. With the help of these lentils the tree breathes, thanks to them additional gas exchange occurs. By the way, they are more loose compared to white bark.
The birch bark, like human skin, has its own pores through which the birch breathes in the most literal sense of the word. Let's take a look at human skin.
As you can see in the picture, the skin has pores arranged in small triangles through which the skin breathes.
Now let's look at the birch bark.
Birch bark also has pores similar to human ones, only the nature of their shape is slightly different.
It is noteworthy that birch bark was previously actively used in medicine:
White bark, one might say, is the old (non-living) bark of a tree. Lentils burst through it, allowing the tree to breathe.
Birch bark is a very dense material that protects the tree from weather conditions (heat, cold, rain, etc.), that is, it performs protective functions for the tree, like skin for humans. The tree also breathes through the bark, thanks to dark horizontal stripes called lentils. Lentils have a looser tissue than the bark itself, allowing air to pass through. Thanks to them, the tree breathes.
I asked myself a similar question many times and only recently found out why, or rather, why these very black stripes/stripes are needed on birch trees.
The white part of the birch trunk, which occupies a much larger part/area, does not have water or oxygen, which the tree so needs for growth, for breathing.
And these black stripes, dashes, which are called lenticels, in contrast to birch bark, allow oxygen to pass through, which is necessary for the tree.
We can say that these are the pores through which the birch tree breathes.
WHY IS THE WHITE BIRCH
Throughout the life of a birch, from youth to old age, the bark that covers its trunk changes greatly in appearance. A small birch tree, which is no higher than the knee, has a trunk covered with brownish bark. A middle-aged birch tree has pure white bark with black streaks that run across the trunk. During this period, the trees are especially elegant. An old birch tree that is reaching the end of its life has a trunk covered with spotted black and white bark. White islands of birch bark are scattered against a general black background. This spotty picture occurs because the tree grows thicker and deep cracks form in the bark. They are overgrown not with birch bark, but with other protective fabrics that are dark in color. Birch bark is preserved only in the spaces between cracks.
Our entire further story will be about birch bark. The main purpose of birch bark is to protect the internal living tissues of the trunk from drying out. This is precisely its main, vital role for the tree. And the birch bark is designed in such a way that it protects the trunk well from water loss. It fully serves its purpose. The birch bark cells fit together very tightly, like well-laid bricks. There are no gaps between them - intercellular spaces. In addition, the cells are firmly connected, firmly glued together. The cell walls are impregnated with a special fat-like substance that does not allow water to pass through. All this ensures the preservation of moisture inside the trunk.
Birch bark grows in thickness every year. Over the years it becomes thicker and thicker. But the increase each year is small - like a sheet of ordinary writing paper. Interestingly, the growth comes from within. Therefore, the youngest layers are located deepest, while the oldest, on the contrary, lie on the surface. The outer layers are often partially shed in the form of fragments of a thin white film that are fluttered by the wind.
When we tear off a piece of birch bark, we notice that it is thin-layered. Each layer is the growth of one year. The individual layers are tightly welded together, forming a single whole. Birch bark looks like a thin book with many pages stuck together.
Now about coloring birch bark. Why is she white! The fact is that birch bark cells contain a special white coloring substance. Therefore, the birch trunk gets dirty. If you touch a birch tree in dark clothes, it will leave a mark like chalk. So, in this case, whiteness is due to a special substance. This phenomenon is very rare in the plant world. As a rule, in plants the situation is completely different. Nature almost always does without any white paint. There are many examples of this kind. The white petals of the flowers of bird cherry, apple tree, lily of the valley and other plants do not contain any special dye. The petal cells are completely colorless and transparent, like tiny droplets of water. But between them there are intercellular spaces filled with air. These microscopic voids reflect light and give the appearance of a white color. There is a complete analogy with snow. Individual snowflakes are completely colorless and transparent, but snow is white. This is explained by the fact that there are air gaps between the snowflakes. Moisten the snow with water - it will immediately lose its white color.
So, white color in plants is very common, and white paint is extremely rare, as an exception. This unusual phenomenon can only be observed in birch trees.
There are many more interesting things that can be said about birch bark. One cannot help but remember, for example, that this is the material on which our ancestors wrote. Birch bark letters were widespread in ancient Novgorod. Birch bark is like a kind of ancient Russian papyrus.
Tar was previously extracted from birch bark, which was widely used in everyday life. A large quantity was needed.
And remember that various household items are made from birch bark - all kinds of boxes, baskets, baskets, etc. This handicraft has survived to this day.
Finally, birch bark is very good for lighting stoves and fires. It is a very flammable material. This property can be useful to us now. With the help of birch bark you can, for example, make a fire even during rain. And sometimes it is necessary.
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