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Silver
Birch
(Betula pendula)
Scots name: Birk
One of the first trees to colonize an area after a mature forest is cut.
Rapid growth occurs for the first
20 years or so, with the tree mature at 40 years old.
The wood is white to pale fawn colour and is easily worked.
Uses and folklore
Birch is good for firewood and
pulpwood.
Used in turnery and formerly for cotton reels and bobbins.
The treated wood is also used for fence posts.
Birch twigs used for making traditional brooms or besoms, where the twigs are
lashed to a handle also made of birch.
Birch symbolized purification, so gardeners would use birch brooms to purify
their gardens.
The sap can be tapped and fermented
into birch sap wine, while the bark has been used to write upon, for tanning
leather and,
as it is high in antiseptic qualities, used as elastoplast to help heal cuts
and wounds.
Birch
bark 
Leaf
and seed
The leaves were said to be a remedy for cystitus and other urinary infections, as was the sap, which was also considered good for skin infections.