The Tree of the North - Paper Birch

Al Lowe
Contributor

This is the famous white tree of the Boreal Forest. It is often called the White Birch, or Canoe Birch. It is the tree which the natives used for their canoes, fabled in song and story. They also made baskets out of the bark, and cups and pails. Some also used bark to cover wigwams in the winter.
There is not just one variety, but several. The one we would be familiar with grows from Manitoba to Newfoundland and Labrador. Other varieties grow in the far west and the far north, too. They all tend to interbreed, so you can’t always tell just which variety you are looking at.
There are some characteristics which are common to all the varieties. They all have catkins. These are the flowering parts. Both male and female catkins appear on the same tree, with the male being longer and thicker. In the spring, they are something like long pussy-willows, and in the fall they hang onto the tree for quite a long time. The seeds are quite tiny but they have fairly big ‘wings’ so they can blow around.
Leaves are sort of egg-shaped, and are usually quite dark green. When autumn comes, they turn bright yellow, and form one of the really bright and beautiful spots of out pre-winter landscape.
The most notable thing about this birch is its bark. The bark is usually bright white, and marked by prominent lenticels. (These are small openings in the bark which allow oxygen and carbon dioxide to pass in and out.) This bark is laminated with sometimes up to 30 layers. It is impervious to water, and is quite resistant to age and decay. For these reasons it has many uses besides the building of canoes. In Scandinavia, some folk still cover the rafters with birch bark before they put on the shingles. It was used for leggings, and we are told that up to some years ago, Russian peasants made shoes out of this bark.
This tree is also called the Canoe Birch, and for very good reasons. The native canoes were the wonder of the Canadian north. A man could go along at a very good speed on the water, and, when he had to, he could pick up his boat and carry it a long way.
But don’t think that they were all little. Some of the natives built canoes which were 40 feet long or more. They were moved along by 14 paddlers, and could carry 4 tons or more of furs or trade goods. The Indian Canoe, covered with birch bark, was one of the major items which helped open up Canada and the northern states to exploration and development.
The White Birch is usually a medium sized tree, 2 feet or so in diameter, and about 60 to 80 feet tall. The tallest on record, in North America, is in Maine, about 6 feet across and 96 feet high. There are tales from Russia, though of Birches which reach up to 130 feet.
Some pretty good wine can be made from the sap of the Birch, and a type of flour can be ground up from the inner bark. When the wood is partially rotted, it becomes ‘punk’ which was used to start fires in the old days A ‘punky’ log would smoulder all night to keep the house fairly warm.
Birches are often planted on lawns, as specimen trees. Sometimes they are in a clump, which makes a very nice looking accent piece. The Weeping Birch, which is also planted on front lawns, is a relative of our native Birch, from Europe.
The scientific name of this tree is Betula Paprifera. The name Betula was given to it by the Romans. Our Birch has been admired for a very long time.