How many interesting things exist in our plant world! What unusual, amazing trees grow on Earth! And one of them is called Schmidt's birch. The famous botanist Komarov in 1903 recalled in his writings that it was very different from representatives of this genus and had never had closely related species.
Iron birch
There are a large number of trees on our planet that are unusual in shape and features: giants, dwarfs, trees of a hundred years of age and immense thickness. There are those with giant and surprisingly small leaves, but there are strange flowers and scary thorns.
What is most surprising is not the type of plant itself, but the names invented by people. One of them is the iron birch of Schmidt. We’ll talk about it further.
Botanical Description
Schmidt's iron birch reaches a height of 35 meters with a trunk diameter of about one meter.
The bark is grayish, beige in color, cracked, peeling and peeling. On young branches, it has a dark cherry color. The old branches are purple-brownish, sometimes with resinous glands.
Leaves 5-8 cm long and 3-5 wide, ovoid, epileptic, have up to 10 pairs of pubescent veins well visible from below and with glands of veins, completely naked from above, petioles short. On the edge of a notch.
Female earrings of about 3 cm in length contain 200-250 wingless fruits that reach maturity at the very beginning of autumn. Propagated by seeds, and at the age of one hundred - by shoots.
Ecological properties of Schmidt birch
The ecological properties of the birch of this breed are quite well defined. She prefers to grow on well-drained, often skeletal soils on the upper and middle parts of the mountain slopes. It is rare in valleys, does not tolerate high humidity. Schmidt birch can grow on the edges of the forest, lit by the sun, in places where other plants do not grow.
This breed is prone to the formation of even trunks or with a large slope. The latest specimens can be found in dense plantations, which is a confirmation of the photophilousness of this type of birch. A young tree reaches for the light, acquiring an inclined position.
What is special about Schmidt’s birch?
There are different birches, some are nothing like others. They are found with black or orange bark; wood, due to its severity, easily drowns in water. Where did they come from? What are these completely “non-birch” birches, one of which is awarded the name of iron? What is special about Schmidt's birch?
She is the only representative of the natural species from the category of "iron trees". This is a very unusual plant!
Why is she like that? It's just that the iron birch is the oldest of all the others, in a single copy surviving among other unusual relatives. The period of her life - 300-400 years, differs from other birches by slow growth, especially in the first fifty years. Given the long life span, this is normal.
This breed blooms for a short time in the month of May. Seeds ripen in the second half of October.
What is the feature of Schmidt's birch, which is very different from others? It perfectly resists fire, which makes it possible to have an advantage after fires of mixed (fir, cedar) forests.
Schmidt Birch: a feature of wood
The wood has a pink color with a yellow tint. Annual rings are almost invisible, vessels are large. The main composition is thick-walled cells. The wood is heavy, strong, solid. Strength is higher than boxwood, which is considered the strongest.
Resistance to decay is higher than all birches growing in our country. The main pest of iron birch is a gray-yellow tinder fungus, but the core of the wood resists destruction very persistently.
Schmidt's birch, the feature of wood which has its significant advantages, has not found application in farms, as there are no tools that can process it.
The oak is considered the standard of the fortress, although it is not the hardest tree. Why, speaking of this quality, first of all, we recall the oak, and not the iron tree called "Schmidt's birch"? There is nothing surprising in this, because birch grows only within Russia, and oak - all over the globe.
A unique feature of the wood of these trees is that it cannot be destroyed by any acids. One and a half times stronger than cast iron itself, a bullet will not be able to break through it.
Value, application
This amazing feature tree has become widely used in green building in the form of valuable decorative species when planting in parks, forest parks, at the edges and glades of the forest. In tandem with oak, it can be planted in a protective strip.
The features of Schmidt's birch are also determined by its beauty and simplicity. The tree, which gives a through shadow, is an adornment of a rural look in summer and winter, it is very popular. Since ancient times, people sang birch in songs, it was and remains a symbol of beauty.
Technological features of Schmidt's birch: it is capable of being well polished, amenable to processing with cutting tools. This tree is used for the manufacture of art products, as plywood raw materials and in mechanical engineering.
This tree is also used in medicine. For therapeutic purposes, both buds and birch leaves are used.
In the treatment of influenza, two tablespoons of the infusion of buds and birch leaves can be taken orally four times a day. To prepare it, you should brew 1 tablespoon of raw materials in a glass of boiling water.
The use of iron birch in chronic fatigue syndrome: take a tablespoon of kidneys per a glass of boiling water, heat for half an hour in an enameled bowl in a water bath, strain, squeeze and add boiling water to its original volume.
